Theirs
by Scarlet has Fantasy Issues
Summary: Samantha has a night on the boardwalk with the Boys and enjoys it despite the issues that plague her. And all the Boys want to do is keep her smiling. Lost Boys/OC Author Drabble
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello, my lovelies! I'm back with my third short story for Lost Boys! This has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with my Lost Boy series. This is merely me having a bit of fun for myself and obviously, a bit for Felicia. I might have gotten a little bit carried away here. It's over 27 pages when I looked at it last and that is way over my usual typing experience for this website. I had fun and then depressed myself and then had fun again. This is a Lost Boys friendship story and I'm in it, so if you don't like that, you can back out now and I won't complain. You can notice some stuff in here if you want, I'm not that subtle. I don't try to be. Anyway, please enjoy! Warning for language, in advance!**

**OOOOOOOOO**

"Sammy!" two loud voices called out into the night, rising above the sounds of people screaming on the carnival rides.

Samantha turned and brushed back the dark hair that blew in her face, letting out a small sound of surprise as she was swept up into the arms of two laughing blonds. "Paul! Marko! Let me down!"

Paul let out a hyena-like laugh and tossed his wild blond hair as he gave Samantha another big squeeze before setting her down. He settled his hands on her hips while Marko stood behind her, plucking at her hair with his hand. Paul's laughing eyes lingered over Samantha's body for a moment as if checking her out before returning to her eyes and he smiled.

"Sammy, Sammy, Sammy!" he chanted, jumping up and down. "You came back!"

Samantha nodded and smiled up at him. "I did."

"Finally," Marko said from behind her, still tugging at her hair. "What took you so long?"

"I've been busy, I guess."

Paul shared a look over her head with Marko and then poked her forehead. "With _them_, you mean, Sammy?"

Samantha flinched and snatched at his hand, catching it in hers. "Yes, Paul. With them. Again. You know that they won't go away. No matter what I do."

Marko sighed and patted her on the shoulder. "We're sorry, Sammy."

Samantha shook her head and lowered her eyes, staring down at the aged wood of the boardwalk. She hated that the Boys knew that she had mental health issues, but they did. They had caught her in the act during one of her episodes and she hadn't been able to explain it away like she had with some of her other friends. All of them, even David, had listened to her around a bonfire as she explained what kind of hell that she had to go through everyday for most of her life and then Paul and Marko had tried their best to make her laugh away her tears because every time she talked about it, she cried.

_I don't even know why I cry about it anymore_, Samantha thought, frowning. _I've talked about it so many times, I shouldn't even cry about it, but I do. And that sucks. I can't believe that I cried in front of David! And he didn't even say anything about it. He just looked at me like it was natural and offered me a smile. He can be a sweet guy, sometimes._

"Hey Sammy," Paul said gently, touching her cheek with his fingertips. "Don't be sad."

"I'm not sad," Samantha lied, looking up at him.

Paul shook his head, obviously not believing her words. "When you're sad, we're sad. Right, Marko?"

"Right," Marko agreed and he wrapped his arms around Samantha's middle, resting his chin on her shoulder. "So, don't be sad, Sammy. We've got you. And those little voices of yours, don't tonight. So, don't listen to them."

"Yeah. Listen to our loud ones!" Paul sang, nodding his head. "We'll drown them out and make you smile all night long! I guarantee it, Sammy!"

Samantha smiled as Paul started jumping again. She slid a hand over one of Marko's and the cherub faced blond started slowly swaying with her. "So, where are the other two Boys and Laddie tonight?"

Paul stopped jumping for a moment and lifted an eyebrow. "Why do you want to know?"

The brunette shrugged her shoulders as Marko continued to sway with her. "I was just curious. You guys are never without David or Dwayne and Laddie usually tails you guys around like a little puppy. So, where are they tonight?"

"Around." Paul shrugged his shoulders and put his tongue in his cheek. "But you're not going to see them any time soon, Sammy."

"I'm not?"

"Nope! Tell her, Marko."

"You're not," Marko agreed. "We're keeping you to ourselves for a bit."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really." Paul reached out and pulled her from Marko's arms, crushing her against his own chest. Samantha gasped at the close contact, but the wild blond ignored it as he smiled down at her. "Because we haven't had you with us in forever! So, David and Dwayne can forget about seeing you for a while. Me and Marko are going to show you a good time, Sammy!"

Samantha stared up at Paul's eager face and sighed. She really had missed him and his stupidity. And he could make her smile. Him and Marko could anyway. Especially when she felt like nothing in the world could.

"Okay, okay," she said, putting her hand against his chest and gently pushing herself back a little. "We can hang out a bit, Paul. But please, stop humping me."

Paul laughed. "Humping you? Sammy, sweetheart, I ain't humping you. I'm hugging you. This is humping you."

Samantha let out a small noise and jumped back away from the wild blond as his hips gyrated against hers. Her cheeks flooded with heat under the bright lights of the boardwalk and she crashed back against Marko, who caught her in his arms. Paul laughed loudly and shook out his mane of hair, pointing at her as he held his stomach.

"Paul!" Samantha exclaimed. "That wasn't funny!"

The wild blond continued to laugh, wiping away a pretend tear. "Oh, yes it was! You should see your face, Sammy! You can tell you're a virgin!"

Again, Samantha's face reddened. "It's not my fault that no one wants to date me, Paul! I'm a freak, remember?"

Just like that, Paul's laughter cut out and his smile slipped away. He blinked. "What did you say, Sammy?"

"No one wants to date me."  
"No, no. After that." He moved closer to her. "You said something horrible after that. Something untrue."

Samantha looked up at her friend as he moved to stand just in front of her and felt Marko's hands tighten on her arms. "I said that I wasn't going to get a date because I was a freak, Paul. And it is true. I am a freak. A crazy, schizophrenic freak."

"Bullshit." Paul shook his head and reached out, cupping her face between his hands. "Sammy, you are not a freak. You are simply sick. A little nutty, yeah. But who isn't?"

"We are, but you still love us," Marko said from behind her.

"But –!" Samantha began to protest.

"But nothing, Sammy. You're not a freak to us and you're not a freak to most of the people in your life. Okay?" Paul smiled a crooked grin at her. "You're our Sammy and we love you like a sister that we never got to have before old Max changed us. And we're not about to let you beat yourself down with nasty words because of what those voices tell you. So, don't listen to them."

"Listen to us," Marko told her. "We're the Voices of Reason."

Samantha laughed at that. "Voices of Reason? You two?"

Paul smoothed his thumbs over her cheeks. "See? We got you laughing again, didn't we?"

The girl nodded. "You did."

"So, no more calling yourself that naughty word again?"

"Not tonight, I won't."

"Sammy…"

"Paul, I can't promise that I won't call myself that word again." Samantha shook her head at his frown. "I can only promise that I won't say it again tonight. Or within your earshot." She turned her head slightly. "Or yours, Marko. I love you both too much to let you hear me say it again. Okay?"

Marko nodded. "Okay, Sammy."

Samantha's green eyes turned back onto Paul as he sighed. He nodded too and continued to stroke her face with his thumbs.

"Okay, okay. I guess I can deal with that promise too. But I don't like it. Thinking that you could call yourself a freak, Sammy. Because you aren't. You're too sweet and cute to be a freak."

"Okay, now you're getting weird." Samantha pushed his hands away from her and stepped out of Marko's arms. "Can we go do something now? Like ride some rides together? Since I haven't seen you guys on the boardwalk in forever, I want to have some fun with you before someone tries to tear us apart again."

"Like we'd let anyone take you away from us," Marko said, jumping next to her side and hooking his arm around hers. He bit his thumbnail, which he knew annoyed her sometimes. "Which ride do you want to ride with us first, Sammy?"

Samantha shrugged. "You guys decide."

Paul grabbed hold of her other arm and pulled her in one direction while Marko attempted to pull her in the other direction. Samantha made a small sound when she couldn't move in either. The two Lost Boys glared at each other over her head and then tried to pull her in opposite directions again to the same effect. Samantha rolled her eyes and shifted her arms until she had a hand grasping one of each of theirs.

"Okay, never mind that," she said, squeezing their fingers as she tugged them after her. "I'll decide where we go first."

"Yay!" the two blonds cheered.

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha walked arm-and-arm with Paul and Marko as they got off of the rollercoaster on the boardwalk, smiling as the two Lost Boys joked about how stupid that ride was. She had heard the same story a million times before, but she loved it every single time. Paul had a little skip in his step as he moved next to her, making her skip slightly too as they passed the line that had started to get onto the ride and Marko had to keep up next to them.

"That was fun," Samantha said, looking up at the laughing Lost Boy.

"We could go on it again," Marko told her.

"Yeah," Paul agreed. "We could just push everyone out of the way and tell them that the Princess demands that she gets to go on the front cart again."

Samantha shook her head. "But I'm not a princess."

"You're our princess, Princess." And as if to prove his point, Paul turned and made an exaggerated bow before her.

Samantha laughed at him and tapped him on his back. "Paul, straighten up. People are staring and it's weird. You know that I don't like it when people stare at me. You, maybe. But not me."

Paul wiggled his eyebrows up at her as he straightened. "Are you trying to say something, Sammy?"

"No."

"Really?"

Samantha turned to look at Marko. "Marko, help me."

Marko shrugged and lifted his arm. Samantha immediately ducked under it and leaned into his body. The cherub faced blond stuck his tongue out at Paul and held the girl against his side when the wild blond made a sound of protest.

"She chose me," Marko declared proudly.

"Well, she'd choose Dwayne if he were here," Paul stated, crossing his arms.

"I would not," Samantha muttered, sliding an arm around Marko's waist. "You're just jealous that I hung out with Dwayne more than you the last time that I came to the boardwalk, Paul."

Paul frowned. "Do you love him more than me, Sammy?"

Samantha shook her head. "I love you all equally. And for different reasons. I can't pick favorites."

Marko pressed a kiss to her temple and then lowered his gaze to hers. "Do you want us to get you something from the games, Sammy?"

"They're rigged, Marko. You couldn't win something for me if you tried."

That cherub's smile came onto his face. "We know how to beat them."

Samantha lifted an eyebrow. "You do?"

"Yep!"

"How?"

"Magic!" Paul declared, wiggling his fingers mysteriously with a loud laugh. "We're secretly witches as well as you-know-what's."

Samantha shook her head again and looked back at Marko. "How?"

"Well, when you've lived on the boardwalk for so long, you know how to beat the cheaters at their own game," Marko explained, smoothing his hand along her side. "And you know us, Sammy. We're great at cheating."

"Oh, I know it." Samantha smiled. "I still refuse to play Hide-And-Seek with you guys ever again."

Paul stuck his tongue out at her and wiggled it at her. Samantha snapped her teeth at him, earning a loud, hyena-like laugh from the wild blond.

"Ooh! Sammy, I'm falling in love with you a little more every day!" Paul declared, putting a hand over his heart.

Marko made a twirling motion against the side of his head with his finger when Samantha looked back at him and she nodded to show that she understood. She leaned her head against his shoulder and let him start walking her away. Paul called out her name and began to hurry after the two of them.

"Paul!" Samantha cried out when the Lost Boy pulled her out of Marko's arms and dragged her towards the gaming area of the boardwalk.

"I'm going to win you the best prize ever, Sammy!" Paul declared, laughing as he looked back over his shoulder at her.

Samantha frowned at him as she tried to keep pace with him. She didn't bother muttering apologies to the people that Paul pushed out of the way to get them towards his goal faster. It wouldn't matter if she did anyway. People on this boardwalk didn't care much for apologies or niceties. If they couldn't be bought, they didn't care about anything.

_Please just go away,_ Samantha thought as something buzzed angrily in her head. _I just want one night alone with the Boys and not think about you guys. Please, just let me smile and have fun with my best friends. Please!_

"Okay," Paul said, pulling Samantha up to a booth that was dedicated to baseballs and stacked up cups. He dropped her hand and rubbed his own together. "Which prize do you want me to win for you first, Sammy?"

Samantha sighed and looked up at all of the prizes hanging up around the booth, biting her plump bottom lip. She lifted a hand and pointed at a stuffed dog with large eyes. "I want…that one."

Paul followed her finger and laughed. "Of course!" He reached into his pockets and slapped some money on the counter in front of the booth's owner. "Give me something to throw. I wanna win something for my Sammy."

The booth man's eyes slid onto Samantha as he pocketed Paul's money and Samantha stepped back against Marko again. He tucked his cigar back between his teeth and handed Paul three irregular baseballs. "Good luck, punk," he ground out.

Paul put his tongue in his cheek and pulled his hand back, throwing the first ball. Samantha smiled as the ball crashed into the stack of cups, knocking them all down. The booth man swore under his breath. Paul let out a small cheer and started tossing the other two balls in his hand.

"Well?" he prompted, looking at the booth man.

"You have two more balls," the man said, shaking his head. "You have to hit two more stacks before I give you the stuffed animal."

"Fair enough," Paul said, shrugging a shoulder. He looked over at Samantha and smiled at her. "Do I get a kiss for good luck, Sammy?"

Samantha cocked her head to the side. "Do you promise to keep your tongue in your mouth this time, Paul? Because I'm not kissing you if you put your tongue in my mouth again."

Paul made a crossing motion over his heart. "I promise."

Samantha pushed herself away from Marko and stepped over to Paul. She bounced onto her toes and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his lips. "Happy now?" she asked, lowering herself back onto her feet.

"Nope," Paul complained, shaking his head. "That wasn't a real kiss. But it'll have to do." He turned and faced the booth again. "Let me win you that big old doggy, Sammy."

"And I'll win you that," Marko promised, pointing at a large panda stuffed animal hanging at another corner of the booth. "Because I know that you love pandas, Sammy."

Samantha turned to look at the cherub faced blond. "You didn't even know what a panda was until I met you, Marko. And now you're just as crazy about them as I am."

Marko smiled at her and pulled her to his side again. "I know. David's mad at you for that."

"He can deal with that. And if not, send him my way. I'll handle him on my own."

She watched Paul's ball knock over the next stack of cups to the dismay of the booth's owner. Marko leaned his head against hers and started humming to the music playing around them. Samantha smiled and tried not to focus on the voices that started whispering to her. She didn't want to pay attention to them. She wanted to get lost in the moment that she got to spend with her best friends. Because it wasn't often that she got to hang out with the Boys. Not with her job or her writing or her other life's obligations that took over her days. And with the Boys being vampires that could only go out at night, she didn't get to see them much.

_Just let me have this one night with them for now,_ Samantha thought to the noise in her head. _Please. Let me have this one night and then you can torment me for the next few days. Okay?_

"Yay Paul!" she cheered when he knocked over the last of the stack of cups.

Paul snatched up the dog stuffed animal from the sour faced booth owner and laughed at the man before turning to face Samantha. He dangled the animal in front of her face for a moment before lifting it out of her reach. He danced backwards and laughed, tossing his hair.

"Okay, Marko," he sang, eyes dancing with laughter. "You're up! Win our Sammy her panda!"

Marko glanced down at Samantha and she pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. "Thank you," he said gently, prying himself from her side and stepping up to take Paul's place at the booth.

"Good luck," Samantha said, though she knew that he didn't need it.

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha laughed as she walked with Paul and Marko through the crowds on the boardwalk, clutching her panda to her chest as she did so. Paul had her dog tucked under his other arm as he had his arm wrapped around her shoulders and Marko had his arm wrapped around her waist, tapping his fingers against her hip. It felt perfectly natural to her, even though neither of her two exes had ever done that with her and she never wanted to think about those two assholes again. Not when she had her best friends with her.

_I wonder what the Boys would do to them if they found out about what Paul and John did to me, _Samantha wondered, glancing up at Paul when he laughed at something. _Would they kill them like they've done to so many other people on the boardwalk? I've seen the Missing Person's Wall and I know that the Boys have done most of that. But would they do something like that for me?_

"Hey Samantha," a familiar voice said, making Samantha freeze in her step.

Samantha looked towards the side of the boardwalk and saw the other two Lost Boys leaning against the railing, looking as gorgeous and deadly as ever. Her eyes landed on Dwayne first and he gave a little wave, his dark eyes smoldering as they roamed over her. She knew that he was just making sure that she was okay. He never checked her out, as far as she knew. Samantha had checked him out when she had first seen him, but how could she not? He didn't wear a shirt under that jacket of his and he was pretty hot. They all were. But he was Dwayne. Her protector first. And anything else could come way after.

"Dwayne!" Samantha exclaimed, breaking away from Paul and Marko to rush over to the dark-haired Lost Boy.

Dwayne opened his arms to her and embraced the girl, smoothing a hand through her hair. "Hey Sammy," he said gently. "We've missed you."

Samantha nodded and rubbed her cheek against his chest. "I missed you too, Dwayne. A lot. But I'm back. For the night, at least."

Someone cleared their throat next to Dwayne to get her attention. "Did you forget about me, Samantha?"

Samantha lifted her face away from Dwayne and turned her green gaze onto the platinum blond that was staring at her. "David…"

How could she ever forget about him? He was intimidating and perfect and dangerous all in one big package. And he rarely called her "Sammy" like the other Boys did. She was "Samantha" to him and she kind of liked that. Kind of. Her eyes lingered on his ice blue ones for a moment before trailing down his face, mentally noting that he needed to shave again, but not that she minded a little scruff on David's face. It suited him just fine. And she lowered her gaze further on his body before raising her gaze back onto his face just as he liked to do to her.

"I didn't forget about you," she told him, hugging her panda against her chest. "I've missed you too, David."

David looked at her hard. "Then where's my hug? Or do you only hug those fuckers?"

Samantha glanced back at Dwayne and the other two Boys. "I didn't think you'd want to hug me."

"Think again, Samantha."

Samantha watched him open his arms to her and she hesitated just a moment before stepping forward. She jumped into his arms and pressed her face against his chest and felt his arms close in around her, almost possessively. Samantha closed her eyes and breathed in his scent, taking in the light aroma of cologne and cigarette smoke. Normally, she hated cigarettes, but on David, it didn't bother her as much.

"You were gone too long, Samantha," David told her, running his fingers along her back, still crushing her against his chest. "Two and a half fucking months."

Samantha sighed. "I've been busy, David. Trust me, if I could have come back to the boardwalk and you guys sooner, I would have. But I couldn't. I'm sorry."

David pulled back a little and looked into her eyes. "Is it because of the voices, Samantha?"

She heard the other Boys press in closer, listening to her conversation with David. Samantha nodded slowly and looked up at David. She placed her hand on his chest and gripped at the front of his inner jacket.

"They're not getting any better, David," she admitted. "I mean, they're not getting much worse either. But my new doctor has put me on my old medication again since it's the only one that I can afford now. And it's kind of working." She shook her head. "I just can't stand this anymore, David. And I know that there's nothing that you guys can do about it, but you wish that you could. Everyone wishes that they could. But you can't. I can't. And it sucks like hell."

David shook his head and pulled her to him again. "We'll figure something out," he promised against her hair. "Samantha, you shouldn't stay away from the boardwalk or us just because of your sickness."

"Yeah," Paul agreed from behind her. "We can make you smile and laugh and party all night away just to make you forget about those nasty little voices for a bit, can't we, Sammy?"

Samantha nodded against David's chest, still breathing in his scent. She blushed when her stomach made an annoying rumbling sound and David parted from her again. His blue eyes glinted as he looked down at her and then narrowed as he looked at Paul and Marko.

"You didn't feed her!" he snapped.

"Nope," Paul said, shaking his head as he tossed Samantha's stuffed dog into the air. "We were too busy taking her everywhere. And humping her…Well, I did anyway."

Samantha shook her head and blushed at the memory. David let out a small growl and tightened his grip on her. "David…" she warned.

"Yeah," Marko agreed, putting his hands on his hips. "We took her on most of the rides and then over to the games to win her some toys. And her stomach wasn't complaining until just now, Davie. If we'd known our Sammy was getting hungry, we'd have fed her. Honest."

Samantha shook her head. "You don't have to feed me, David. Please, don't worry about it." Her stomach made that sound again and she clamped a hand over it. "Shut it, you."

David shook his head and grasped her hand tightly in his as he pushed himself away from the railing of the boardwalk. "We're feeding you. Honestly Samantha, why won't you let us take care of you?"

"Because I'm not used to being taken care of," Samantha admitted, glancing down at their joined hands. "Remember, my exes never took care of me like this. And no, I'm not telling you more about them. I know you, David. You'd go after them. And I don't remember much about the second one."

David shook his head again and looked down at her as they started walking. "What do you want to eat, Samantha?"

Samantha thought for a moment. "Ice cream."

"That's not a meal."

"Ice cream," Samantha repeated slowly, putting emphasis on each word. "With chocolate sprinkles."

"She wants ice cream, David," Dwayne said from her other side. "And you'd better get it for her or she won't be happy."

"And we don't like an unhappy Sammy," Paul sang from behind them, bouncing loudly on the boardwalk. "It's not a nice Sammy."

David cursed under his breath and steered the small group over to the nearest ice cream vendor, pushing people out of the way. Samantha pressed closer to the leader of the Lost Boys, feeling the stares of people on her skin, but not knowing if they were really staring at her or not. She knew that the Boys would back her up, they always did. They had from the moment that they had first introduced themselves to her. Well, Paul and Marko had been the first ones to come up to her one night on the boardwalk and dragged her around until David and Dwayne came upon them and demanded to know who she was. And now, she couldn't get rid of them and didn't want to.

"What can I get you?" the vendor asked when they made it the front of the line.

"Chocolate ice cream in a tub for the little lady," David ordered, still gripping Samantha's hand in his own. "With sprinkles."

"And four spoons," Samantha added quickly. David's eyes slid onto hers and she smiled up at him. "I'm sharing," she told him. "So, don't you argue with me, David. I'll win."

David rolled his eyes and passed over some money when the vendor told him the price for the sweet treat. The oldest of the Lost Boys collected the ice cream in his hand and the spoons before jerking his head in the direction of a collection of tables. Samantha let herself be pulled towards them and settled down on the table, setting her panda on her lap. David sat to her left while Dwayne sat on her right. Paul and Marko plunked down across from her and Paul immediately waggled his tongue at her, earning a laugh.

"Eat," David told her, shoving the ice cream in front of her.

Samantha sighed and dipped her spoon into the ice cream. "You don't have to be an asshole about this, David," she replied, earning a laugh from Paul at her use of language. She nudged the tub over slightly as she placed the spoon into her mouth. "Dwayne?"

Dwayne took some of the ice cream and smiled at her. Normally, Samantha didn't like sharing her food with other people. Something about swapping germs and spit bothered her, but with the Boys, it was different. Of course, there were other friends that she did it with too, but tonight, she was with her best friends and that was all that mattered.

"Aren't you a little old for stuffed animals, Samantha?" David asked while Marko and Paul helped themselves to her ice cream too.

Samantha glanced down at the stuffed panda in her lap and frowned at it, thinking about the other stuffed animals that she had in her room. It was true that she was getting older in life. Soon she would be older than the Boys when it came to their human years, but that didn't seem to bother them. To them, she would always be younger than them and their little Sammy, or Samantha, in David's case. But it bothered her that she was getting older and older while they remained untouched by the world.

"No," she muttered, shaking her head and running her fingers over the thin fur of the stuffed animal. "I like it. And it's not like I'm going to sleep with it." She pushed her ice cream towards him. "Eat."

David dipped his spoon into the ice cream and took a long, slow lick at the chocolate ice cream, keeping his eyes glued on hers. He smirked at her when she watched him and she shook her head, looking away. She hated it when he did that. Her spoon dipped back into the ice cream and she brought it to her mouth, eating mechanically while her friends laughed around her.

Her eyes widened slightly as the sounds of the boardwalk and the laughing voices of the Boys were suddenly not the only sounds that she heard. No, she could hear the raising voices of the sickness in her head and it was killing her. Samantha dropped her spoon and made a small noise, clapping her hands over her ears. She knew it wouldn't do any good to do that. The sound wasn't really coming from outside, but inside her head. But it didn't matter. She had to make it stop! It _had _to stop.

"Just go away," Samantha whispered, shaking her head as she looked down at the table, very aware that the Boys had stopped laughing and were watching her. "Please, just stop and go away. Please, please, please."

Dwayne slipped a hand onto her lap and squeezed her thigh. "Sammy," he said gently. "It's going to be okay."

Samantha shook her head and lowered her hands as the voices subsided in her head. "It's not, Dwayne. It's never okay. It's not going to be okay until something happens that makes these – these things go away for good."

Even Paul looked sad when she looked up at him and she hated that she had brought that to him. She wanted to curl up in a ball and die on sight. She wanted to leap across the table and wrap her arms around him and promise him that everything was going to be all right but, how could she? When everything about this whole damn sickness was uncertain, how could she promise one of her best friends that things were going to be okay? And bring a smile back onto his face?

David slipped a hand onto her back, startling her. "What are the doctors telling you, Samantha? What are they doing about this?"

Samantha stabbed at her ice cream. "The same thing that they've been telling me for years, David. Take my medicine. Stop stressing over simple things. Don't watch scary movies, but I love watching scary movies, so scratch that advice." She shook her head. "If something doesn't change, they might try to put me in the psych ward like they tried to when I had my problems earlier."

David's grip on the back of her shirt tightened slightly and he growled. "We're not letting that happen, Samantha. You're not going to any funny farm."

She lifted her eyes to his. "Even if it helps me? Finally?"

The leader of the Lost Boys shook his head slowly. "No. It wouldn't help you. It would take you away from us and change you into something that we wouldn't want you to be."

"Yeah," Marko agreed, nodding his blond head. "A blank-eyed, happy mindless zombie full of drugs and numb to the world."

"And that is not the Sammy that we want," Dwayne said, rubbing circles on her thigh.

"We prefer the nutty Sammy that let's us party around her," Paul told her, wiggling his tongue at her. "And hump her just to make her blush."

Samantha stabbed a finger in his direction. "You are not humping me again, Paul! The only person that is ever supposed to hump me is my future boyfriend-husband."

"And we get to help choose him for you, Samantha," David told her. "Because we're going to fucking kill any bastard that hurts you again. You don't deserve to have your heart broken over some idiot that's not good enough for you."

"Yeah, well, good luck with that." She shook her head and dipped her spoon back into her ice cream, not really interested in it anymore. "I'm not as popular with boys as you are with the ladies. You guys are all sexy as hell and I'm well, look at me." Her cheeks burned with color as she realized what she had just said. "Don't read into that. And don't look at me."

"Too late," the Boys all said at the same time, smirking.

Samantha cursed under her breath and looked back down at her ice cream. "I shouldn't have said anything. I shouldn't have said anything about that."

"Well you did and you can't take it back now," David told her, running his hand down her back and earning a shiver from the girl. "And there's nothing wrong with the way that you look, Samantha. We've been trying to tell you that for a long time now. You're just not looking in the right places for the guy of your dreams."

"Maybe not," Samantha agreed, ducking her head. "But I've got friends looking for him. And I've got an idea of what I want. Of who I want. It's just not happening. And my mom wants grandchildren soon."

Paul laughed. "And that means that our Sammy needs to have sex first. Lots and lots of sex. Kinky sex. Dirty, dirty sex."

Samantha's cheeks burned with heat as she looked up at the laughing blond. "Paul!" She looked towards Marko. "Can you hit him for me? I'm too far away to do it properly."

Marko nodded and punched Paul off of the table, knocking the laughing blond onto the ground. Paul rolled onto his back, still laughing. Samantha shook her head and leaned against Dwayne, embarrassed by what Paul had said. Dwayne patted her leg to show that he understood.

"Are you done eating, Samantha?" David asked, glancing down at her ice cream.

Samantha nodded slowly, still listening to Paul's loud laughter. "Why?"  
"We're taking you shopping," David announced, popping onto his feet. "And if you argue, I'm not going to listen. We haven't seen you in forever and it's about time that you let us do something nice for you. And after what we've just seen, you deserve something. Okay?"

Samantha frowned at that. _But I don't like having people spend money on me, David! And you know that, asshole! _She watched him gather up her melted ice cream and chuck it into a trash can. "Okay. Whatever."

Dwayne helped her to her feet and Samantha hugged her panda to her chest as she settled close to the dark-haired Lost Boy. She wanted to stay close to Dwayne as they walked as a group towards the shopping portion of the boardwalk and didn't completely understand why. David growled at anyone who dared to look in her direction. Already in overprotective mode, she noticed. And she couldn't blame him. After her little episode, she knew that all of the Boys would be on her case for the rest of the night.

_Why couldn't you guys let me have one night without freaking out on me?_ Samantha wondered to the voices that were buzzing lightly in her head. _I'm trying to have fun with my friends and you just had to get out of hand, didn't you? Well, stop it! I'm not trying to earn their sympathy here. I'm trying to enjoy myself for once. And you're ruining everything. Again! And it's driving me crazier than normal. And it's getting them worked up. Just look at David! Look at him! He's twitchy and snarly and he's going to be an asshole to everyone all night. Perfect! Just fucking perfect!_

Paul darted on a head of them and laughed as he disappeared into the crowd. Samantha shook her head as Dwayne pulled her to a stop next to David. David plucked at a backpack and glanced at her as if questioning something. He nodded and grabbed the backpack off of the hook.

"You're going to need this," he told her, swinging the backpack by one of the straps.

"Why?" Samantha wondered out loud, watching him exchange money with the clerk and rip the tags off of the backpack. "I have one back at home that I use for work."

"Well, you're not at work, Samantha," David said, shouldering the bag. "And this is for all of the things that we're going to buy you. So, shut up and let us treat you to some shit."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Language, David."

"English."

"Asshole."

David smirked at that. "Language, Samantha."

Samantha stuck her tongue out at him and he snapped his teeth at her. Dwayne pulled her closer to his side and shook his head at the older of the Lost Boys. David rolled his eyes at that and turned, heading in another direction. Marko nudged her with his elbow as he appeared at her side and smiled from behind his thumbnail. Paul popped up next to David as the platinum blond browsed through some t-shirts and whispered something into his ear.

"Really?" David asked, lifting an eyebrow. Paul nodded excitedly. "Well, go get the thing, Paul. And get it in the right size. She'll love it."

"Love what?" Samantha asked, watching Paul dart off again.

"You'll see," David said, turning and holding a shirt up against Samantha as if sizing her up. He tilted his head to the side and nodded. "Nice."

Samantha sighed. "Clothes? Really?"

"Yep. You'll like this one." He turned the shirt so that she could read the front. "See."

"Vampires Slay Me." Samantha read off of the front of the shirt and she noticed the heart with vampire teeth sticking on it. She smiled at it and reached towards it to check the size, but the vampire tugged it away before she could. "David!"

"Ah, ah, ah," David said, turning to grab another, different shirt for her before walking towards the clerk. "I know what size you wear, Samantha. In everything. We all do."

Heat blossomed in her cheeks. "I don't even want to know how you know that."

"Magic," Marko told her, echoing Paul's earlier statement.

Samantha shook her head and pressed her cheek against Dwayne's shoulder. The tall Lost Boy pressed a kiss to the top of her head and she sighed. It made sense that the Boys knew everything about her. It creeped her out sometimes, but they were always up to something. And if they could sneak around her house, they could have found their ways into her closet where her clothes slept.

David approached her after paying for her shirts and ripped the tags off of the shirts before stuffing them in the backpack slung over his shoulder. "Okay, next shop," he said. His eyes slid onto her neck. "Maybe we'll get something for that pretty little neck of yours, Samantha."

Samantha shifted her panda so that she could touch her neck with her fingertips. "Why?"

"Because I said so." He jerked his head in a seemingly random direction. "Come on. I know a place."

Samantha sighed and let herself be escorted after the elder Lost Boy. Dwayne rubbed her shoulder with his hand, grounding her in reality. Marko hopped along next to them, smiling at her from behind his thumbnail. She wanted to reach out and grab onto his hand, swing it between them like a child would, but couldn't with her grip on her panda. So, she simply smiled back and then looked towards David's back, trying not to look down at his ass because if he caught her staring, she'd never hear the end of it.

_I don't check out my friends_, Samantha told herself as David stopped them at another shop. _I haven't done it since I met them and I'm not about to start now. That'd be weird and wrong. And I'm not interested in any of them that way. And Felicia would kill me if I hit on any of them without her._

David rifled through a bunch of black leather chokers, looking dissatisfied with all of them. Marko stepped up to help him while Dwayne stood next to Samantha, keeping an eye out for anyone that would bug her. Samantha looked towards a display of cheap rings and tapped her cheek against Dwayne to get his attention.

"Over there," she whispered, gesturing with her eyes at the small display. "Please."

He nodded and escorted her past David and Marko, towards the display of rings. "Which one do you like the most, Sammy? You can have any that you want?"

Samantha looked down at the cheap rings and sighed. She remembered getting some stuck on her fingers at another one of her favorite stores and how embarrassed she had been, even when the friendly clerk had told her that it had been okay. But this store had a sizing chart next to the ring selection and she knew her ring size better now, so she could make her decision before picking one out and wouldn't make that horrible mistake again. She ran her fingers over the rings and plucked up a couple – one with a bunch of bats on it and one with swirling tendrils of flames on it – and showed them to Dwayne.

"I like these two," she told him quietly.

Dwayne snapped them out of her hand and turned to David as he approached with Marko. "Sammy likes these, David," he announced, showing the platinum blond the two rings that Samantha had picked out. "What do you think?"

Samantha watched David scoop the rings off of Dwayne's palm and put them onto his pinky. The Lost Boy examined them and smirked. His ice blue eyes lowered onto hers. "Are you going to wear them?" he asked her.

"Probably," Samantha replied, settling back against Dwayne's side. "I'm not ungrateful for what people buy me, David. If you buy it, I wear it."

David nodded and held up a black leather, studded choker for her to see. "I want to see this on you the next time I see you, Samantha. Maybe even after I buy it for you."

Samantha nodded. "Okay."

David stepped over to the clerk and paid for the jewelry. He stepped back to her side and pushed Dwayne away from her, not that the quiet Lost Boy complained much. David's cool fingers brushed back her hair and he clasped the choker around her throat. Samantha wasn't used to wearing tight necklaces around her neck, but she would for him and the other Boys. She wanted to make them happy after everything that they did to make her happy.

"Good," he said gently, stepping around her and tilting her face up so that he could see the choker better. "It looks good on you."

Samantha smiled. "Thanks."

David nodded and looked past her. "About damn time, Paul! What the hell took you so long?"

"I got a little held up, okay?" Paul said from behind Samantha. "But I found her size and I think she's going to look so good in this!"

Samantha turned around to look at her wild blond friend and her jaw dropped at what was hanging in Paul's hand. "A leather jacket! Paul! Where the hell did you find that?"

"Over that way!" Paul said proudly, jerking his thumb over his shoulder as he passed the jacket over to David. "And I knew that you'd like it, Sammy. You've been dying for a leather jacket for years. I've read it in your diary and in your stories. You've got a real nasty craving for men in leather, don't you?"

Samantha shook her head, ignoring the fact that he had invaded her privacy by reading her diary. "You shouldn't have spent so much money on that for me, Paul!"

He pouted. "But we have money to spare, Sammy! And he told me to do it!" He pointed at David, who ripped the tag off of the jacket before she could see the price or protest. "Besides, you need a leather jacket. Like us. And think about it, you've wanted one since you saw that British guy in it on television. Admit it, you think they're sexy as hell."

"I'll admit nothing," Samantha muttered, turning her gaze back onto David. "David, seriously, me in leather?"

"Yes, Samantha. You in leather." He shook the jacket out and approached her slowly with it. "Don't you want to be one of us?"

The way that he said that made another shiver go down her spine. Samantha turned her back on him and let him slide the jacket onto her. The Lost Boy pulled her long dark hair out from under the collar and fanned it out around her shoulders, smoothing his fingers through the tendrils. Samantha sighed and almost leaned into the touch before turning to face the others.

"Well?" she asked, gesturing down at herself.

"Hot, hot, hot!" Paul sang out, jumping up and down as he fanned himself. "You're smoking, Sammy! I'm in love! Again!"

Marko smiled from behind his thumbnail. "You're cute, Sammy."

Dwayne nodded approvingly at her questioning glance, but said nothing and she was okay with that. Her green gaze slid onto David next and she saw him looking down at her, sizing her up again, ignoring the others.

"David?"

"You're good," he told her softly. "Almost one of us, completely. Without the vampire part. But that could change one day. If you want us to do it, Samantha." He reached out and tugged on her earlobe. "You want us to buy you something for those?"

Samantha reached out and touched his own earlobe, tugging at his. "How about something like yours?" she asked. "Not the double kind, obviously. I'm not ready to have double piercings."

David smirked. "Afraid of a little extra pain, Samantha?"

Samantha shook her head. "No. I just don't want to go through my ears trying to eat my piercings again." She frowned. "Remind me to never get my ears done at a cheap jewelry store again."

"We'll take you to a tattoo parlor next time," Dwayne promised, sliding an arm around her shoulders and pulling her to his side once more. "And we'll be right there holding your hand."

"And chanting something really loud while the guy shoots you in the ear," Paul said, still jumping up and down. "Bang, bang."

David shook his head. "Why don't you want something more like Dwayne's? You've always liked his."

Samantha's eyes lifted towards Dwayne's long dangling earring and she shook her head as she looked back at David. "Maybe next time. I want something like yours, David. Please? I think they're pretty cool."

Something changed in his ice blue eyes and he smirked as he shifted her backpack on his shoulder. "Okay then. We'll get you some big girl earrings, Samantha. To replace those cheap, little cutesy ones that you always wear." He shook his head and looked away. "Honestly, butterflies and penguins? I thought you were a Lost Girl?"

"Hey!" Samantha protested, following after him with Dwayne at her side and the two blonds right behind her. "There is nothing wrong with penguins!"

"Yeah, Davie," Paul echoed from behind her. "Penguins are cool as hell!"

"For flightless birds that don't fucking do anything," David muttered, shaking his head.

"They're cute," Samantha said, defending the birds that studded her ears at that moment.

"You prefer sexy, Samantha," David reminded her, tossing the comment over his shoulder. "You've grown past the cute phase a long time ago."

"Only in vampires and men, David." Samantha paused for just a moment. "And cowboys."

Paul and Marko laughed. "Maybe we should get her a vampire cowboy, Paul," Marko commented, tapping her on the hip from behind. "Won't that make you happy, Sammy?"

Samantha shook her head. "I can't attract a hot vampire cowboy, Marko. I can't even attract a normal, hot guy."

"It'll come, Sammy," Dwayne assured her, rubbing her shoulder. "And we'll be there to make sure that he doesn't do anything wrong to you."

"And kick his ass if he does," Paul promised.

"And then rip his balls off and shove them down his throat if he tries to hurt you," Marko added, nodding his head so that his curls bounced. "No one touches our Sammy."

"No one has, really." Samantha told them. "Except for my first boyfriend kissing me, no one has touched me before."

Paul laughed. "We couldn't tell, Sammy. Not after you reacted to me humping you."

"Marko?" Samantha prompted.

"On it," Marko said and she heard him hit Paul from behind her.

"Hey!" Paul whined.

David stopped them at an earring stand and pulled her away from Dwayne once more. He grasped her hand tightly in his and dragged her over to a display, turning it around and around, searching for any set of earrings that he liked for her. Samantha looked at the display as it turned, eyeing the jewelry and frowning at the prices.

_They really shouldn't pay this much for me_, she thought, watching him pluck up seemingly random pairs and set them down. _This is more than my paycheck on any given week and I hate to think about how much they've spent on me since I've come to the boardwalk. It's too much sometimes, but they won't stop. David keeps telling me not to worry about it. But I do. I can't help it. The sickness won't let me stop worrying about anything._

"Found them," she and David said at the same time as the display stopped spinning and revealed the pair of earrings that almost matched his exactly.

David smirked down at her and she quickly looked away from him, hugging her panda against her chest. The Lost Boy plucked the pair of earrings from the display and set them down on the counter before turning the display one more time as if checking to make sure that he hadn't missed any pair that would suit her.

"David," she sighed, looking at him as he gave up on finding more pairs and scooped up his collection. "Are we done now?"  
"Maybe," he told her, pulling her towards the register. "I haven't decided that yet."

"Please, can we be done?" Samantha begged, watching him exchange money with the clerk and the clerk slip her new earrings into a bag before handing it over to the Lost Boy. "Please, I think I have enough goods to last me for a while."

David slid the bag of earrings into her backpack and then turned to look at her, frowning. "And if I say no?"

"I'll argue with you."

"I could ignore you and keep shopping for you. I have all night, Samantha. We," he gestured at the Boys around them. "Have all night on the boardwalk with you."

Samantha brushed back a strand of hair that flew in her face and frowned back at him. "David, please. Stop. I want to do something else. Can we go to the beach and have a bonfire? We haven't had one of those in a while. Please?"

"Please Davie, please!" Paul joined in, jumping up and down beside Samantha. "We could dance with her and get her to finally drink beer with us!"

Samantha shook her head and stuck her tongue out at the mention of beer. "Nasty! Get some whisky or something and I'll drink that. But David, please? A bonfire?"

David nodded and reached out, taking her by the hand again. "Fine. We'll go do a bonfire on the beach. Just for you, Samantha."

Samantha smiled and swung their hands childishly as they started walking. "Thank you, David."

OOOOOOOOO

Marko and Paul stopped by a shop and got a box of cheap beer and a small bottle of whisky especially for Samantha before David led them down to the beach. Dwayne flanked her other side, keeping an eye out for trouble. Samantha kicked up sand, still swinging David's hand as they walked, earning a small smirk from the older Lost Boy. She hugged her panda to her side as she glanced at the bonfires around the beach, noticing the Surf Nazis and their drunken dates clustered around them.

"I don't see any open spaces," she told the Lost Boys as they walked along the beach. "Maybe we can't have a bonfire, after all."

"Like hell we won't," David spat, shaking his head. "I promised you a bonfire and you're getting one, Samantha."

"Yeah," Paul agreed, appearing in front of her and starting to walk backwards. "We can easily chase away some stinking Surf Nazis and get us a good old fire, Sammy. You just watch."

Samantha sighed, but nodded. "Okay. Just don't start a fight."

Marko winked at her and darted off with Paul.

David pulled her over to a fire that he seemed to like the most. The Surf Nazis gathered around it looked up as the group approached and the leader of that annoying group lowered his beer bottle.

"What do you want?" he asked and Samantha immediately hated the sound of his voice.

"Clear out," David ordered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "We want this spot now."

"Fuck off, mate," the same Surf Nazi said, flipping David off even as Paul and Marko flanked David. "We were here first."

"David," Samantha whispered, watching the fire and the people gathered around it.

David ignored her. "I said clear out."

The leader of the Surf Nazi's eyes landed on Samantha as he stood up and he smirked. "How about this? We'll let you have this spot if you let us have the chick?"

Samantha felt Dwayne and David press closer to her and she hugged her panda closer to her chest. She hated Surf Nazis particularly for this reason. They thought that every woman on this boardwalk belonged to them. Including her.

"You're not having our Sammy," Paul ground out, shaking his blond head as he stepped closer to David.

One of the other Surf Nazis laughed and threw his empty beer bottle into the fire, sending sparks up into the air. "Well, maybe we don't want her anyway, buddy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Marko asked, his voice tight."

"Look at her," the Surf Nazi said, pointing. And something in Samantha's stomach tightened, bracing for his words. "She's fat and ugly."

Samantha's body shook as his words echoed in her head and she felt her Boys draw in sharp angry breaths. David's hand tightened on her and he let out a low growl, grinding his teeth together. Samantha pulled her hand out of his, recognizing the danger that the Surf Nazis had just placed themselves in by insulting her in front of her best friends, her protectors.

She raced forward before the Boys could react, something that impressed even her, and planted her foot in the groin of the Surf Nazi who had called her fat and ugly. He doubled over and cupped himself, his face going red in pain. Samantha gripped him by his dirty-blond hair and jerked his face back so that she could look into his pain clouded eyes.

"Leave," she ordered quietly. "Now." _And don't thank me for sparing your life for the next few hours because I know that as soon as the Boys find you again, you're as good as dead. All of you are. For calling me something bad in front of them. Everyone that does it meets the same end, even if the Boys don't openly admit it to me._

The Surf Nazi lowered his hands slowly and backed away from her. "Bitch," he muttered and he turned, fleeing with his small group of Surf Nazis.

Samantha's body shook as she watched them go and her big toe ached from her kick to the Surf Nazi's groin. David let out a small growl again, cursing under his breath.

"David," Samantha sighed, turning to face him.

"They're dead," he told her, approaching her slowly with the other Boys flanking him, all looking serious. "All of them are fucking dead!"

Samantha shook her head and sat down on a log next to the fire, burying her face in her hand. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. There would be no reasoning with him when he got like this. If someone insulted her in front of him or he found out about it by one of the other Boys, he'd get pissed and that person would end up on the Missing Person's Wall the next day. Samantha couldn't stop him and she didn't know if she wanted to. The insults hurt, even after hearing them over and over again for most of her life. Even from her own lips in front of her mirror.

"David, David, David," she muttered, closing her eyes against her palm. "What am I going to do with you every time that someone insults me?"

"You could tell me and let me handle it," David told her and she heard him sit down on the log next to her. "In my own way."

"Your way is bloody and violent, David."

"And it should be. No one should insult you like that, Samantha. It's not right."

Samantha lowered her hand as Dwayne slid an arm around her, drawing her to his side as he sat down on the log next to her. She smiled half heartedly at him and leaned her cheek against his shoulder. Paul and Marko started dancing around the fire, already popping open a can of beer each. She watched them for a moment before realizing that David had flared up a cigarette and was taking a drag on it.

"I wish that you wouldn't smoke around me," she admitted, shaking her head slightly. "It's a bad habit."

"Then don't do it," he told her, glancing in her direction. He offered her the bottle of whisky and she wrapped her fingers around the neck of it. "It's bad for humans."

Samantha hummed in agreement and lifted the bottle of whisky to her lips, taking a sip. The liquid burned its way down the back of her throat, causing her to cough a little. Paul laughed at her and spun around, kicking up some sand. Samantha lifted a hand to shield her eyes.

"C'mon Sammy," he urged. "Take a bigger swig! You're a tough girl! A Lost Girl! Drink! Drink!"

Samantha felt David's eyes on her as she lifted the bottle to her lips again at Paul's challenge and tilted her head back, throwing back more of the burning liquid. She swallowed hard and shook her head as she fought back another coughing fit, not wanting to disappoint any of the Boys. Paul and Marko cheered for her as she lowered the bottle and high-fived each other as she smiled at them.

"I can handle the good stuff," Samantha told them, tapping her bottle against Dwayne's can before he lifted it to his lips for a swig. "I've done shots with my best friend's husband for a while now. And he's gotten me to drink some big glasses of bourbon before."

"Lush," David commented.

"Am not!" Samantha protested, shaking her head.

Paul reached out and pulled her from Dwayne's arms, twirling her around and around. "And now we dance, Sammy!" he declared as he kept spinning her around in front of the others.

Samantha crashed against Marko as Paul let her go and frowned, apologizing softly. Marko smiled and put his hand on her hip. Samantha smiled back at him and started dancing with him, not caring that she had no real dancing experience. With the Boys, it didn't matter. She could do anything she wanted with them.

Paul, not wanting to be ignored, popped up behind her and settled his hand on her other hip. Samantha turned her head slightly and made a small noise in the back of her throat as he moved his hips against hers, but he simply laughed and continued moving with her. Samantha glanced over the fire at David and Dwayne and saw them watching the three of them.

_They never dance with us, _Samantha thought, shaking her head as she looked back at Marko. _Well, I've danced with Dwayne in my room. While the others watched. Until Paul interfered, as usual, but David has never danced with me. Ever. I don't think he's the dancing type. The kind of guy that talks to people and kills them and is a complete asshole at times, yes. But not the dancing with a girl kind of guy._

"Stop humping her, Paul!" David ordered from his perch on the log that she'd been pulled from when Samantha let out a small gasp. "Or I'm going to come over there and rip you off of her!"

Paul let out a small whine and stepped back slightly, but didn't stop moving against Samantha. Her cheeks flamed with heat, not for the first time that night.

"I don't want to stop dancing with her, Davie!" he complained, shaking his head. "You haven't let me dance with her in forever!"

"That's because you can't keep your dick off of her," David growled, eyes flashing when Samantha glanced over at him. "Honestly, don't you know that she's not interested in any of us like that?"

"She's saving herself for that vampire cowboy," Marko reminded Paul, still dancing in front of Samantha."

"Her future husband," Dwayne corrected, watching the three dance over the fire.

Samantha ducked her head, embarrassed by how easily the Boys could talk about her like that. _Okay, maybe I am too innocent for my own good. How can they stand to be around such a shy girl all of the time? Maybe I need to change for them? But how? How can I not be me without doing something that I'll regret or make my parents question my sanity? I'm not about to become someone's booty call._

"Get. Off. Of. Her." David ground out, rising slightly off of the log.

Paul jumped back as David's beer can soared through the air, almost hitting Samantha. "Okay, okay! I'm off, I'm off!" He looked back at Samantha and smiled that famous crooked grin. "You okay, Sammy?"

She nodded and looked back at Marko as he stopped dancing with her too. "Is it okay that we don't dance anymore right now, Marko? I think someone is getting pissy."

Marko mouthed "oh yeah" and lifted his can to his mouth, taking a swig. Samantha turned on the ball of her foot and moved back around the fire. She pushed David back onto the log in passing and then settled between Dwayne's legs, sitting on the sand with her back pressed against his naked chest. His hands draped around her shoulders and he propped his chin on top of her head.

"I don't want to go home," she told the group as they settled around the fire. "If I do, that means that tonight is over and I have to go back to the nightmare that life hands me every day without you guys."

"You could come back to the boardwalk every night," Dwayne reminded her, his chin bouncing slightly on her head with each word that he spoke. "Or we could come visit you at your house."

"And have my parents complain about the strange boys in my room?" Samantha lifted the whisky bottle to her lips and took another swig. "Do you think they'd understand that?"  
"They don't have to know that we're there," David told her. "Why? Are you ashamed of us, Samantha?"

Samantha shook her head. "Hell no! I love you guys! You're like my brothers! And I don't have any real ones!"

"You don't kiss your brothers, Sammy," Paul commented, wiggling his tongue at her. "But you do kiss us."

"Not on the lips, I don't," Samantha said, shaking her head again. "Well, not exactly on the lips. But my point still stands."

Marko lifted a hand and pointed at Dwayne and David. "You kiss them on the lips."

Samantha felt rather than saw David and Dwayne smile at that. "Are you jealous?"

"Nope. I know where I stand in this relationship, Sammy." He turned his gaze onto Paul as he lifted his beer can to his lips. "Don't you, Paul?"

"I'm jealous," Paul said, nodding his wild blond head. "I don't get to use tongue on you anymore."

"And you fucking won't!" David growled, throwing a fistful of sand at the blond. "She's not yours to touch!"

"I'm nobody's to touch at the moment," Samantha told him. "And probably won't be for some time. So, cool it down a bit, David." She reached out and placed a hand on his knee, stroking it with her thumb. "I'm fine. I can keep him from using his tongue on me. We've talked about it, haven't we, Paul?"

Paul nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Samantha closed her eyes as another wave of noises crashed over her, but she didn't clap her hands over her ears this time. She saw a flash of images against her eyelids and bit down on her bottom lip. Dwayne patted her on the shoulder and David pressed his hand over hers, smoothing his thumb over the back of hers.

"It's going to be okay, Samantha," he promised her as she opened her eyes once the moment passed. "We're going to figure something out and get this problem fixed. Somehow. You're going to have peace. Even if we have to pay the best doctors in the world to find that miracle drug that'll chase those voices away."

"David," Samantha sighed, but she knew better than to argue with him about this. His word was final and his promise was sweet.

She leaned her head back against Dwayne's chest and looked up at the few stars that peeked through the dark clouds in the sky overhead. Dwayne's fingers threaded through her hair and she felt herself relax under his touch. He smiled down at her as she sighed again, feeling herself grow tired the more that he played with her hair.

"I think someone is ready for bed," he said, glancing over at David.

"No!" Samantha protested, snapping her head up. "I don't want to go home and go to bed! That means that I won't see you guys for a while!"

"You'll see us again," Paul promised, nodding his head.

"Really, really soon," Marko added with a smile.

David tossed his second, finished beer into the fire and rose to his feet. "We're taking you home, Samantha. It's time for you to get some sleep. We've got some things to do before sunrise anyway. Things that you don't need to see."

_Like handling the Surf Nazis that insulted me in front of you and feeding_, Samantha thought, but she kept those comments to herself as she remained firmly planted between Dwayne's legs. "David…"

"Don't argue with me, Samantha." He turned and held his hand out to her. "We'll tuck you in, if you want. Will that make you happy?"

Samantha stared at his hand for a moment, knowing that if she took it, that it would signal that she was giving in and that her night with her favorite Boys was drawing to an end. Again.

David shook his hand impatiently in front of her face and Samantha sighed, reaching out to grasp it. He pulled her to her feet and took the whisky bottle from her hands, downing it for her without coughing like she had at first. His blue eyes stared into hers as he tossed the bottle into the fire and he reached out, tucking back a stray strand of her dark hair.

"You're so weird," she told him quietly.

"And you're soft," he replied, pulling her after him. "Maybe that's why we love you so much, Samantha. Hard things are for boys. Not for girls."

The other Boys immediately flanked her, taking up their roles so perfectly. Samantha swung her and David's joined hands again, knowing that it amused him. He led her through the crowded boardwalk and past the creepy Max's Video where the Boys' sire worked. She didn't like that man or the way that he treated her favorite Boys. And she was glad that he hadn't tried to talk to her that night. If he had, her problem could have been worse.

"Whose bike am I riding tonight?" Samantha asked as David escorted her towards the entrance where the four motorcycles gleamed proudly.

"Mine," all four Boys said at the same time.

David glared darkly at his brothers and then looked back at Samantha. "You're riding with me."

Samantha nodded slowly to show that she understood and let him pull her towards his motorcycle, ignoring Paul's whine of protest. David flipped out his outer jacket, the longer of the two, and mounted his bike before offering her his hand again. Samantha took it and climbed onto the back of his bike with more grace than she had when she had the first couple of times.

"Hold on tight, Samantha," David ordered and she wrapped her arms around his middle. He glanced down at her. "Tighter than that."

Samantha rolled her eyes and pressed herself closer to him, squeezing him tighter around the middle. "Like that?" she asked.

He nodded and patted her knee. "Good enough."

The leader of the Lost Boys kicked his motorcycle into life as the others did and turned his motorcycle onto the street that led away from the boardwalk. Samantha readjusted her grip on him as he sped out into the darkness, her hair whipping out behind her and laughed. She loved riding with her Boys, even if they were merely taking her home. Dwayne rode up next to them and smiled over at her. Paul and Marko drove on ahead and wove in and out of traffic, howling into the night.

"Be careful!" she called out over the roar of their engines, but she knew that they weren't going to listen to her.

She settled back against David and tried to enjoy the ride.

OOOOOOOOO

"Okay, how do you plan on getting in there?" David asked as the small group stood in front of Samantha's small house where she lived with her parents and two of her four sisters.

Samantha patted her pockets and swore. "I forgot my key!"

"I could knock on the door and call out for your parents to open the door," Paul offered, heading for the door as he spoke the words.

Samantha rushed after the blond and caught his fist, pressing a hand to his lips as he sucked in his breath. "Don't you dare!" she hissed at him. "If my parents find me with you guys, they'll flip on me! And I can't have that right now. I have to ease them into this friendship I have with you."

Paul slowly let out his breath and then licked her hand. Samantha made a face at him and wiped her hand off on his jacket. She turned and looked back at David, Dwayne, and Marko as they approached.

"I'm going to have to find another way into the house," she told them quietly. "I can't just wake up my parents to get into the house."

"And how are you going to get into the house?" Dwayne asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Your room is on the second floor, Sammy."

"Well…I could use the ladder around back," Samantha said, remembering the old one that her dad had used last week for minor repairs on the roof. "If you guys would put it right back after I climbed up it."

"You? Climb a ladder?" Marko laughed when Samantha nodded. "Aren't you afraid of heights, Sammy?"

Samantha scuffed the toe of her sneaker against the ground. "I wouldn't call it a fear, but a slight discomfort, Marko. But what other choice do I have? I'm not about to let one of you fly me up there." She looked up at them. "I'm climbing that ladder."

The other Boys looked towards David, expectantly. He nodded and pulled his cigarette from between his lips, this one unlit. "Get the ladder," he told Marko. "We're going to watch you, Samantha. Just to keep you from breaking your neck."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, David." Samantha headed after Marko and stopped when she reached her side of the house, looking up at her darkened window, judging the height. "Let's hope that I have some of that on my own, shall we?"

Marko appeared with the ladder and set it up against the side of the house for her. Paul took up one side of the ladder and Marko grasped the other side. Samantha put one foot on the bottom rung and took a deep breath, mentally psyching herself up before proceeding to climb that metal deathtrap.

"Looking good, Sammy," Marko called after her.

"Uh-huh," Samantha said quietly, not looking down.

Paul got the wise idea to start shaking the ladder and Samantha yelped, gripping onto the ladder tightly.

"Dwayne! David!" she called out, turning her head slightly. "Make him stop!"

"Paul!" David growled and she heard someone get slapped. "If she falls and breaks her neck, you're going to find your ass in fucking sunlight in the morning!"

Paul let out a small laugh. "Sorry Sammy!"

The ladder stilled and Samantha let out a small sigh of relief. She glanced down and saw that Dwayne was now holding the ladder for her. Paul was standing a good distance away from it, a red imprint on his right cheek. David was watching her with an intense look in his eyes.

"Thank you," she mouthed to him and he gave the slightest hint of a nod.

Samantha turned her face back towards her house and quickly finished climbing to the second floor of her house. Relieved to be on solid ground again, she danced over to her window and then turned to find the Boys standing right behind her. She had forgotten how fast they could be when they wanted to.

"Are you going to let us in?" David asked, gesturing towards the window.

Samantha nodded, but Dwayne beat her to the window, crouching down and sliding it open. "Thanks, Dwayne," she said, patting him on the arm as she ducked through the window and into her room.

Someone flicked on the lamp beside her bed, letting the room flood with light to reveal all of her bookshelves cramped with books that she'd written or bought. Her desk was covered with DVDs, video games, daggers that she hadn't put up yet, and her laptop. Her walls, which weren't blocked by her shelves, were covered in posters and pictures of friends and family pets and of course, her daggers. And her big zebra striped chair was still tucked away in the corner. Her closet and bedroom doors were both closed, blocking her room off to outside intruders.

"Ooh! Shiny!" Paul said, touching one of her newer daggers. "Are you sure you should have something so sharp, Sammy?"

Samantha nodded and watched Dwayne take his usual place against her bedroom door. Marko perched himself on her hooded headboard and bit down on his thumbnail. David popped into her walk-in closet before she could protest and started rummaging through her drawers.

"David!" she called out quietly, knowing that the vampire could hear her very well. "What are you doing?"

"Getting you something to wear," David announced, still rummaging through her clothes. "Hmm…Cute." He poked at something and then started rummaging again. "Don't you have something more revealing, Samantha?"

Samantha shook her head. "No! Why would I? I don't like showing off my body, David. I don't have anything to show off to anyone and Dad wouldn't approve anyway."

David shook his head and mocked her with his lips. He pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a tank top before reaching into her top drawer and withdrew a sports bra without really looking into the drawer, for which she was grateful. He turned and held the clothes out to her.

"Go change into these," he ordered. "We'll still be here when you come back."

Samantha took the clothes and watched him drop her new backpack onto the floor of her closet which she would deal with in the morning. She shrugged out of her new leather jacket and pulled off her leather choker, dropping it onto her dresser. "Okay. But keep Paul in here. I don't want him following me into the bathroom to see me change. Promise me that you'll all behave and stay in here. I don't want you to see me out of my clothes, David."

David's eyes lowered on her body for a moment. "Fine."

Samantha turned and hurried out of her closet, ignoring Paul's look of hurt and walked out of her room and down the hall to the bathroom that she shared with her sisters. She quickly changed out of her day clothes and into the clothes that David had given her. Her green eyes turned towards the mirror as she dropped her dirtied clothes into the hamper and she frowned at her reflection, not liking the way that her eyes looked back at her. She quickly did her usual human routine and then slapped off the lights before walking back to her room.

David was perched at her desk, thumbing through one of her newer novels in progress with a look of mild interest on his face. It was one of her racier ones, she had to admit. She was trying to grow bolder in her writing and her best friend, Emily, was telling her that it was okay to do that. Samantha hoped that David wouldn't comment about the mentions of fuzzy handcuffs that kept popping up in some of her novels.

"Hey Sammy," Paul said, waving around one of her diaries. "What's this about you thinking about having a crush on one of your former coworkers?"

Dwayne's and David's eyes turned onto her at that comment and Samantha snatched at the diary in Paul's hand, but he kept it out of her reach. "Give me that!" she ordered.

"Samantha," David prompted, dropping the notebook in his hand. "Is there something you want to tell us?"

"No!" Samantha gave up on taking the diary from Paul and crossed her arms over her chest. "No, I don't."

"She has a crush on some guy named Nick," Paul laughed, waving the diary at David over Samantha's head. "And she told two of his friends that she did. She's waiting for his response to it."

David looked back at Samantha as she muttered something unintelligible under her breath. "Samantha, why didn't you tell us about this Nick?"

"Because I don't even know why I have a crush on Nick, okay?" Samantha shook her head. "He teased me when he was working with me and I never told him before he left. I don't even think that he could like me. So, what does it matter? He's gone and he's not going to come back before I go away from my workplace. I'll never see him again and he's not the kind of guy that I normally fall for. So, again, what's the point?"

"The point is, you were crushing on someone and didn't tell us, Sammy," Dwayne said gently from his post by her bedroom door. "What did you think we were going to do? Hunt him down and kill him for you having a crush on him?"

"I don't know. I just don't know." Samantha looked over at David as he stood up slowly. "David, can we please just forget about Nick? Nothing is going to happen between me and him. What's done is done. He's gone. You guys are here. That's all that matters, right?"

His blue eyes smoldered as he looked at her. "Fine. But I want to know the next time that you have an interest in someone, Samantha. So, we can check him out."

"Yeah," Paul agreed, dropping her diary onto the pile of notebooks beside her desk. "Because we get to decide if that punk is good enough for our little Sammy."

"Because we know best," Marko told her.

"Thanks," Samantha said, ducking her head. "I should get to bed, you know."

"You're forgetting something," Dwayne told her, spooking her slightly as he pushed himself away from the door. "Again."

Samantha watched him cross her room and reach into her desk. She sighed as she saw the three small orange bottles in his hand and shook her head. All of the other Boys seemed to grow sad too as they realized what Dwayne was holding in his hand.

"Oh," Samantha whispered, walking over to Dwayne. "Right. Those."

Dwayne shook out a few pills and held them out to her. Samantha took them from him and watched him screw the lids back into place. She stared down at the pills on her palm and wished for the day that she would never have to take them again. There had been a day that she hadn't had to take them before, but that had been a long time ago. Before things had gotten really bad. Before she had met the Boys. Before the nightmares had begun and the hell had started up.

"Bottoms up," she muttered more to herself than anything.

She tossed the pills back and dry swallowed, knowing that it bothered them when she did that, but she didn't care at that moment. She just wanted the pills gone from her life. But she knew that they wouldn't be gone anytime soon.

"Bedtime for Sammy," Paul announced and Marko pulled back her blankets, patting the space that he had made for her.

Samantha sighed and walked over to her bed, sitting down on the edge of it. "I hate that this night has to end."

"We'll come back for you," Dwayne promised.

"Tomorrow night," Paul added, nodding his head as he jumped around her bed. "And we'll party again."

Samantha shook her head slowly, a frown tugging at her lips. "I have to work late tomorrow night, Paul. Sorry."

"Then we'll see you the next night," David told her, standing at the foot of her bed. "You're not getting rid of us, Samantha. When you walked into our lives, you got us for life."

"And one day, you're going to change me, right?" Samantha asked, swinging her legs up onto her bed and sliding them under her blankets. "Through one of your bloods and not through Max's?"

"That was the deal that we made," David said with a nod. "And we're going to have to do it soon too. We can't have you growing too old on us, can we?"

Samantha flipped him off as she sat back against her pillows. Paul laughed and pointed at Samantha.

"I think she just offered you something, Davie," Paul joked, shaking his head.

"I did not!" Samantha shook her head. "Now come on! I want hugs! Lots of them!"

"And kisses?" Marko asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Samantha rolled her eyes and briefly rested her head back against her pillows. "Okay, okay! I'll give some kisses too, but no tongue. Absolutely no tongue whatsoever! Do you feel me, Paul?"

"Oh, I can feel you, Sammy!" Paul threatened, wiggling his fingers.

David growled threateningly. "Touch her and I swear to God, Paul -!"

"David, chill!" Samantha ordered, rolling her eyes at him. "I can handle him, you know. Maybe not all the time, but I can manage." She looked back at Paul. "You behave yourself, Paul. Or we're not going dancing again."

Paul looked mildly hurt for a moment, but his smile returned quickly. "Okay, Sammy. I'll feel you later."

"You'd better not," Samantha warned, shaking her head again. She lifted her arms up. "Marko, you're first."

Marko hopped forward and sat down on the edge of the bed. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Samantha, pressing a kiss to her cheek. Samantha tangled her fingers in his hair and pressed a kiss back on his cheek.

"Goodnight Sammy," he whispered to her, nuzzling his face against her neck. "Thanks for hanging out with us tonight, girly."

"Love you," Samantha told him.

"Me too," Marko answered, breathing in deeply.

Samantha nodded and let him part from her, not wanting to let him go. Marko danced backwards and let Paul take his place. Paul climbed onto the bed and straddled her legs with his. He waggled his tongue at her and Samantha gave him a warning look. He laughed again and settled on her lap for a moment before pressing a kiss to her cheek and wrapped his arms around her. Samantha turned her face and pressed a kiss to his cheek, almost catching him at the corner of his lips.

"I love you, my Sammy," Paul told her, twisting her slightly as he held her tightly against his chest. "We're going to see each other again real soon and have fun on the boardwalk. If Davie will let us, we're going to have us a good old-fashioned race on our motorcycles! Won't that be fun?"

Samantha nodded and squeezed him around the middle. "It sounds perfect, Paul. It really does." She sighed and rested her cheek against his shoulder, trying to ignore the fact that he was pressed against her lower half. "I love you too, you big idiot."

Paul laughed and squeezed her again before jumping off the bed. "See? I told you guys that she loved me!"

Dwayne ignored his laughing brother and sat down on the edge of Samantha's bed. Samantha wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips which he returned quickly before pulling her close to him. She felt him breathe in the scent of her hair and tighten his grip on her and she patted him on the back of his neck to show him that she had felt it.

"I love you, Dwayne," she whispered against his chest. "Thank you for being there for me. Always. And keeping me safe from perverts and…well, other things."

Dwayne nodded and squeezed her. "I love you too, Sammy. And I'm always going to be there for you. Always. Because that's what big brothers do. Even ones that sisters kiss."

Samantha shook her head at his teasing and let him part from her. David was still standing at the foot of her bed, watching. Samantha looked to him, staring back at him. The others stood back, waiting for the standoff to end. Unfortunately, Samantha had to blink first.

"Damn!" she cursed under her breath, rubbing her eyes when they smarted.

David smirked and circled around the bed, sitting down on the edge of it. His cool hand smoothed over her blanket covered leg and she shivered under the touch. "Samantha," he said gently. "Did you have fun tonight?"

Samantha nodded. "I did. Thanks to you and the others."

David smiled instead of smirking and she liked that. It wasn't something that he normally did. And it looked nice on him.

"Goodnight Samantha," David said, leaning forward to press a kiss to her forehead.

Samantha rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the front of his inner jacket, jerking him forward. "Come here, you," she ordered. "If you're going to be a complete ass today, I'm going to be something right back at you."

She pressed a quick kiss to his lips, obviously shocking him as she shocked herself. She lowered her hand from his jacket and let it fall back onto her lap, right on top of his. Paul laughed and elbowed Marko, who also started laughing.

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to tell you that I love you too now," Samantha said, looking at David to find an amused smile on his face. "So, I love you, David. Even when you're a complete asshole to me."

"I love you too, Samantha," David told her, lifting his hand and sliding the back of it down her cheek. "Now, get some sleep. We'll see you in a couple of nights."

Samantha slid down her bed and settled back on her pillows. She rolled onto her side and watched David rise to his feet. He reached over and flicked off her lamp, sending the room into darkness, but she could still make out the forms of her four best vampire friends. They moved over to her bedroom window, but didn't yet climb out of it.

"I guess I'll see you guys around," she yawned, already feeling the pull of her sleeping medication on her.

"Goodnight Sammy," Paul called out to her.

"Sweet dreams," Marko echoed.

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha woke up to the morning light touching her face and sighed, knowing that the Boys had long since departed and were probably sleeping in their cave for the day. She sat up on her bed and touched something that hadn't been there the night before. She lifted it into her line of sight and heat blossomed in her cheeks.

Dangling between her fingers were a bright purple set of fuzzy handcuffs.

"David!"

**OOOOOOOO**

**A/N: So, what did you think about this? The fuzzy handcuffs thing is an inside joke between some of me and my inner circle and will be in my future novels, so if I ever get around to publishing them, think of them as an Easter Egg hunt for you guys. And yes, I do know there are things in here that could be confusing and revealing, but I'm willing to explain anything. I like talking about things to people. What did you think? Let me know! I'm still thinking about Paul's story for my Lost Boys story and of course, there will eventually be a Marko story because what kind of person would I be if I didn't include a story for all of the Lost Boys? Anyway, I look forward to any and all reviews that come with this little number! So please, review responsibly! Thank you everyone and much love for all things Lost Boys! -Scarlet**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello there, my lovelies! That's right, I'm back and I said that I probably wouldn't be. I kind of had to come back and do something with this story as Felicia commented on. I had to do something with that little fuzzy handcuff thing, now didn't I? Well, I bring you this little part 2 thing and yep, this is another longer part than I'm normally used to. I thank you for the support and I hope that you enjoy this just as much as you enjoyed the last part! So, please have fun!**

**OOOOOOOOO**

Samantha stood in front of the Missing Person's Wall on the boardwalk a couple nights after she had been with the Boys and stared at the newest posters on it. Yep, just like she thought, she recognized some of them. There were the Surf Nazis that had insulted her in front of the Boys hanging up with their names and the numbers of the concerned family members listed beneath them.

"Figures," Samantha said, brushing her hair back out of her face as she turned and walked farther down the boardwalk, knowing exactly where she was heading.

The Boys were perched on their motorcycles, laughing or in David's case, already smoking a cigarette when Samantha approached them. Paul noticed her first and smiled, hitting his hand against Marko's chest.

"Look!" he called out, hopping off of his bike and rushing towards her. "It's our Sammy!"

"And she's wearing her leather jacket like a true Lost Girl," Marko commented, following shortly after his laughing brother.

Samantha lifted her arms and wrapped them around Paul's neck as the wild blond crashed into her, lifting her into the air and spinning her around. "Hey Paul," she greeted, bending her legs slightly at the knees for just a moment. She turned her head slightly as Marko popped up at her side. "Hi Marko."

Marko smiled up at her as Paul continued to twist her around. "Sammy, we were about two seconds from coming to get you," he told her, wagging his finger at her. "We were getting worried about you not showing up as you promised, you naughty girl."

Samantha let out a small noise as Paul smacked her on the butt with the flat of his hand.

"Bad Sammy, bad," he said with a laugh, smacking her again. "Naughty girl for making us worry like that."

Samantha squirmed in his arms, trying to get away from him before he could smack her on the ass again which he seemed to be enjoying way too much. "Dwayne, get over here and help me out, please!" Her eyes lifted from Paul's shoulder to the dark-haired Lost Boy who was watching with David. "Before he gets too happy from this whole spanking business."

Dwayne quickly pushed himself away from his motorcycle and approached the small group with light footsteps. Paul made a small noise of protest as Samantha was lifted out of his arms and placed on the ground again, safely encircled in Dwayne's arms. Dwayne let out a small growl when Paul tried to take her back again.

"Dwayne!" Paul whined, tossing his hair. "She's our Sammy too!"

"Didn't we tell you not to touch her ass?" Dwayne asked, holding Samantha close to his chest.

Samantha stuck her tongue out at Paul and patted Dwayne's arms. Paul sighed and scratched the back of his neck.

"I guess I forgot," he admitted. "But she was late for us and we were worried about her. Weren't we, Marko?"

"Yeah," Marko agreed, nodding his curly head. "It's not like our Sammy to be late to the boardwalk."

"I was busy," Samantha said and then her eyes slid away from the two blonds and landed on David, who was quietly watching the scene from his motorcycle. "Sorry."

She pushed herself out of Dwayne's arms and moved past Paul and Marko, approaching David. The object in her pocket felt heavier than it did when she had put it in there before coming to the boardwalk and she knew it was only in her head. But she needed to ask him about it because she knew he held the answers that she needed about it.

"David," she said, stopping in front of him and placing her hands on her hips.

"Samantha," he answered in kind, pulling his cigarette from between his lips. His blue eyes glinted as they looked down into hers.

"We need to talk," she told him. "Alone. Okay?"

David nodded and looked over her head. "You fuckers stay here. Samantha and I need to talk in private."

Samantha heard Paul and Marko begin to protest, but she ignored them. She had to. They didn't need to be a part of what she had to talk to David about. They wouldn't understand and they would probably never let her live it down if they found out what she had been left in her bedroom by the older Lost Boy.

Samantha walked into the crowd of the boardwalk and felt David move right behind her. She led him for several minutes before he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. Samantha stopped walking and looked down at the aged boards, thinking hard.

"Samantha," David said and she could tell that he had taken the cigarette out from between his lips again. "What did you want to talk to me about that you couldn't do it in front of the Boys?"

"Why – why did you do it, David?" she asked quietly, stuffing her hand into the pocket of her leather jacket and grasping the object that she didn't really want to show him.

"Why did I do what?"

Samantha turned to face him. "Why did you have to leave this in my room with me?" She lifted her hand and showed him the object hanging from her fingers.

David stared at the purple fuzzy handcuffs for a moment and then his blue eyes turned back onto hers. He smirked at her. "Didn't you like them, Samantha?"

Samantha swung them around. "I didn't ask for them, David. I want to know why you left them for me to find on my bed. So, tell me why you did it."

David shook his head and took a drag on his cigarette. "Nope."

Samantha readjusted her grip on the fuzzy handcuffs. "Don't make me use these on you, David, to get the answer out of you!"

That infernal smirk grew on David's face as he tucked his cigarette between his lips and brought his wrists together in front of her. "Oh, please do, Samantha," he said in a slightly begging voice. "And call me, your sexy badass vampire prince. Then you can strip me down and have your naughty way with me, if you'd like."

Samantha's cheeks flooded with heat and her mouth dropped open slightly as she processed his words. "You – you! Ugh!" She threw the fuzzy handcuffs at him and turned her back on him, storming away. "Go to hell, David!"

The girl muttered choice curses under her breath as she forced her way through the crowd on the boardwalk, not really sure where she was heading. She just knew that she needed to get away from David and his smirking face before she punched him in that perfect face of his.

"Samantha, wait," David said from behind her and she knew that he was following close behind her.

Samantha shook her head and moved over to the side of the boardwalk, climbing onto the railing and turning her back onto the ocean. She sat down on the top railing and watched David slide out of the crowd, missing his cigarette. His ice blue eyes held hers and she glared at him as he approached her slowly. She didn't stop him from sliding in between her legs or placing his hands on the railing on either side of her hips.

"Samantha," he said softly. "I was just fucking with you."

"You were being a complete asshole to me," Samantha muttered, shaking her head again. "David, I knew that I shouldn't have let you read that novel I was working on. I've been trying to expand my writing and now…now you're teasing me about it?!"

"You're curious, aren't you?"

"I'm not."

David smirked. "It's okay that you're curious, Samantha. It's about damn time that you're starting to get curious about your sexuality."

Samantha looked down at his chest, her cheeks flaring with heat. David's hands shifted and started rubbing along her outer thighs.

"It's natural, Samantha. In a girl your age, it's okay to be curious and start thinking about these things. I've thought them myself for a while, but hey, I'm a guy and I've experimented."

"I know you have," Samantha whispered, closing her eyes as she tried _not _to concentrate on David's hands. "Believe me, David. I know what you and the Boys have done when I'm not around."

David sighed. "I just wish that you would have told me if you had questions, Samantha. I can't be that scary to you, can I? You can come to me or Dwayne if you have questions about anything about sex. Just don't go to Paul or Marko because they might try to explain things to you in ways that I'll have to kill them for."

Samantha lifted her gaze to his once more and her lips twitched at the corner. "Because they might try to touch me, right David? And I'm off limits?"

"You're completely off limits to those two fuckers."

_And what about you or Dwayne? _Samantha thought before she could stop herself. _Okay, now I'm definitely going to be in trouble with Felicia._

"So, why the fascination with the fuzzy handcuffs, Samantha?" David asked, still rubbing his hands along her thighs.

Samantha shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. It started as an inside joke among friends and turned into something like a game for me. I can't get them out of my head now."

A soft chuckle passed through David's lips. "I could tell you all about them, if you want me to, Samantha. And show you how to use them properly."

Samantha put a hand on his chest and pushed him back a little. "I don't think so. I think I can manage on my own. You'd enjoy yourself way too much in these _lessons_, David."

She didn't like how David didn't try to deny it, but he didn't say anything either. He just smirked at her and continued to move his hands against her thighs like his hands had a mind of their own. Samantha's heart did that weird fluttery thing that it did when she had been in her MRI not too long ago, but that had been due to contrast being put in her system. She didn't understand what this meant.

"David," she said softly, thinking about something else now. "Can I ask you another question?" She rolled her eyes as she realized what she had just done. "And yes, I know I just did. But I have another one for you and I'd like you to answer it for me."

David nodded. "Go ahead."

Samantha stared down at his chest again. "Why haven't you danced with me before?"

And just like that, David's hands stilled on her legs. "What?"

"Why haven't you danced with me, David?" Samantha asked, still staring at his chest because it was a lot easier than looking at his face. "The others have danced with me. Even Dwayne. But you never have. Is it because you don't like me enough to dance with me?"

"Fuck, Samantha!" David's hands reached up and cupped her face between them. He tilted her face up so that he could look her in the eye. "Is that what you really think?"

Samantha nodded slightly. "Yeah. You just stare at us like we're annoying. Like I'm annoying you by dancing. David, I know that I can't dance, but I try. And I know that I can be annoying."

David shook his head and smoothed his thumbs over her cheeks. "Samantha, you are not annoying. Paul and Marko are fucking annoying. You're – you're just you." He rested his forehead against hers and sighed. "I didn't think that you'd want to dance with me."

"I didn't ask you because I didn't want to bug you," Samantha whispered. "You do get in a mood sometimes, David."

David stared into her eyes for a moment as if searching for something. Of what, Samantha didn't know and she wasn't sure that she wanted to find out. He pulled back slightly a moment later.

"Come on," he said, grabbing her by the hips and lifting her from the railing, setting her down on the boardwalk once more.

Samantha's hand was immediately grasped in one of David's larger ones and he pulled her into the crowd of the boardwalk. The girl pressed close to his side, feeling the stare of people on her skin and tightened her grip on his hand.

"David…" she whispered, hearing the buzz begin to build in her head.

"It's all right, Samantha," David told her quietly, squeezing her fingers. "Don't think about them. I'm right here."

Samantha nodded and walked quickly next to him. _I know you are, David. I know you are, but still, you can't always be there to keep these things away from me. And I wish that you could be. I wish that you all could be with me all the time. But you can't and I shouldn't expect you to be. It's not fair to you and it's not fair to me._

David guided Samantha down a set of wooden steps and onto the beach. Samantha glanced around them as they walked along the beach, kicking up sand like she normally did. Surf Nazis dotted the beach, but it was early and there weren't many of them around the bonfires that night. Her green eyes glanced over the dark ocean waves and she swung her joined hand with David's, just to amuse herself as well as David. But he seemed a little distracted.

"David," she said as he stopped her by a large bonfire that no one sat by and he released her hand. "What are we doing here?"

The platinum blond Lost Boy didn't respond to her as he stared into the fire for a long moment. Samantha shoved her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket and glanced into the fire too, watching the dancing tendrils of flame.

"Samantha, are you sure that you want to dance with me?" David asked quietly, spooking her slightly. She turned her gaze onto him to find him looking at her with an intense look in his eyes. "I'm an asshole, remember?"

Samantha shrugged her shoulders with a smile. "But you're my favorite asshole, David. And I wouldn't mind dancing with you, if you wouldn't mind dancing with someone who can't dance." She pulled a hand from her pocket and tapped a finger to her chest. "That would be me."

David smirked. "You seem to hold your own with the other Boys."

"They lead, David. I just follow along. I get lucky that I don't step on their feet or make myself look stupid." _Do I look stupid to you when I dance?_

David's eyes slid back in the direction of the boardwalk and Samantha knew that he could hear the music coming from it. She could barely hear it herself with her poor human hearing, but to him, it must be just as loud as it was if they were standing on the boardwalk itself. He approached her slowly and Samantha's heart did that weird fluttery thing again as his hands trailed down her arms until they caught hold of her wrists.

"Relax," he told her as he lifted her hands and put them onto his shoulders, which was a slight stretch for her since he was a bit taller than her. "I'm not going to hurt you, Samantha."

Samantha nodded to show that she understood. She knew that he wouldn't hurt her. None of the Boys ever hurt her. Okay, there had been one time when she had been hurt by them physically, but they had apologized for that profusely and she had long since forgiven them for it. She didn't want to think about it anymore. She didn't want them to think about it again either. But she knew that it was always on the back of their minds every time that she was with them because she was a human, capable of being so easily hurt by their strength.

David's hands slid down her body and settled on her hips, pulling her closer to him. Samantha's breath drew in sharply at the unusual contact. She had danced this close to a person before, but it had been years ago and it had been at a prom and not with someone like David. Not even close to David.

David's body guided hers to music that he heard and Samantha was amazed at how her body seemed to follow his like it knew what it was doing. Her eyes were held captive by David's as they danced and he smirked down at her as he squeezed her hips tighter.

"David," Samantha whispered, closing her eyes as she heard the buzz of voices return to her head.

"Samantha, don't think about them," David told her gently, tapping his fingers against her hips. "Just look at me. Focus on what we're doing and only on me. Okay?"

Samantha opened her eyes slowly and met his eyes again, trying very hard to do what he said, but it hurt. The noise in her head hurt. David pressed his lips against her forehead briefly as they danced and she smiled softly at the tender gesture that was so unlike him.

David turned her around in his arms and pressed her back against his chest as he slid a hand over her stomach, rolling his body against hers. Samantha made a surprised sound at the sudden change in style of dancing and would have parted from him if he would have let her.

"It's okay," David whispered into her ear, still moving with her. "Just relax, Samantha. And keep dancing with your favorite asshole."

Samantha shook her head and tried to relax against David, tried to lose herself in the dance like she would have if she was dancing with any of the other Boys. She felt strange dancing with David, just like she felt strange doing anything with the dangerous Lost Boy. She leaned back against him as he pressed his face down against her neck and lifted her hand to cup the back of his neck, smoothing her fingers through the hairs that hung there, knowing that it was dangerous to let a vampire press his face so close to her neck. Especially when that vampire was David.

_Wow, soft…_Samantha thought, smiling to herself as she continued to dance with David to music that he heard and that she didn't.

"Hello there," Paul's voice said, breaking through the moment. "Do my eyes deceive me or is my Sammy dancing so close to Davie, Marko?"

Samantha looked towards the ocean and saw that the other three Boys were standing there, watching her and David. Paul and Marko were smiling like fools like usual, but Dwayne had a mildly concerned look on his face. She lowered her hand from David's neck as the Lost Boy stilled behind her and lifted his face away from her neck. He let out a small growl as he glared over at his brothers.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked, frowning at them as David slid his arms around her waist.

"We came looking for you, Sammy," Dwayne told her, still looking a little concerned.

"Yeah, Davie said that he was only going to talk to you, but look what he's doing with you," Paul laughed, pointing a finger at the two of them. "I didn't think I'd see the day that my Sammy would be dancing so naughtily with anyone! Especially not old Davie!"

Samantha blushed. "We weren't dancing like that, Paul!"

"Were too!" He elbowed Marko. "Weren't they, Marko?"

Marko nodded and hid his smile behind his thumbnail. "Sammy, aren't you going to come play with us now? Because we want to spend some time with you too!"

David let out a small growl and pulled Samantha closer to him. "You had your fun with her last time! So, fuck off!"

Samantha patted him on the arm and shook her head. "Chill, David, chill."

Paul pointed at Samantha with a smile. "We want to play with her, Davie. She's our little Sammy too. And we've got plans for her." He put his hands on his hips. "And what kind of friends would we be if we didn't feed her right now?"

"Yeah, what kind?" Marko agreed, nodding his head. "Because we can hear her tummy starting to protest. Can't you?"

Samantha glanced down at her stomach when she felt it grumble. She hated that it did that when the Boys were around. Because they could hear it, even when she didn't want them to.

"You guys don't have to –" she began.

"Come on," David said, shifting her out of his arms and grabbing her hand. "We're feeding you, Samantha. And we're not going to listen to any arguments about it. And absolutely no fucking ice cream this time!"

"Asshole!"

OOOOOOOOO

David had ordered her a cheeseburger with fries and Samantha had devoured the burger on her own while throwing fries at Paul and Marko, who had been making faces at her from across the table and teasing her about dancing with David. Dwayne had disappeared for a few minutes and come back with a large thing of blue cotton candy for her. Samantha was now sitting on top of the table with her back to a laughing Paul and Marko with David sitting on the bench portion to her right and Dwayne to her left, plucking at her cotton candy with light fingers.

She offered her cotton candy to Dwayne and let him take some. "So, are you two going to stop teasing me or am I going to have to keep ignoring you for the rest of the night?" she asked, tossing the question over her shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Sammy, don't be that way," Paul laughed, tapping her on the back. "You know we don't mean anything by it. It was just shocking to see you like that."

"Yeah, we never saw you do that before," Marko agreed, reaching around her to snag some cotton candy. "You've never danced like that with us."

"Because he won't let you touch me like that," Samantha said, gesturing at David, who was quietly smoking a fresh cigarette. "And I don't want you to touch me like that. It's weird."

David rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"You know that it was, David. I'm awkward."

"You're just not used to being close to men, Samantha," David said, pulling his cigarette from his lips so that he could blow out a stream of smoke. "It'll come to you in time."

Samantha stuck a piece of cotton candy in her mouth and swallowed. "Maybe it will. Maybe it won't."

Paul laughed. "It will. And it'll be just as kinky as you want it to be from your novels, Sammy. You have a dirty imagination for a shy virgin, Sammy!"

"Marko…" Samantha sighed.

She heard the satisfying sound of someone being knocked off of the bench behind her and Paul whined. Samantha shook her head and stuffed another piece of cotton candy into her mouth and let it melt on her tongue. Dwayne took a piece and looked up at her, watching her eyes for a moment.

_Yes, Dwayne_, she thought, frowning at him. _I'm having issues again tonight. And no, there's nothing you can do about it. If David can't do anything about it. You can't do anything about it either._

Dwayne patted her on the knee, rubbing his thumb over her kneecap, and put the cotton candy in his mouth. Samantha offered a weak smile before turning her head slightly as Paul leaned over her shoulder to snatch up a piece of cotton candy for himself. He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek with a laugh and then ducked back down onto his side of the table. Samantha shook her head again and looked back at the silently brooding David.

_He really needs to lighten up_, Samantha thought, tapping her fingers against the side of her cotton candy stick. _He seemed so much calmer when we were dancing together._

Samantha plucked up a big piece of cotton candy. "David," she said, getting his attention and holding out the piece of cotton candy to him. "Here."

David stared at the cotton candy that she was offering to him. Samantha waved it impatiently in front of him, earning a smirk. David pulled his cigarette from his lips and reached out. Samantha thought that he was going to take the cotton candy from her hand and put it in his mouth like the others tended to do. But he didn't.

David's hand grabbed her wrist and Samantha's eyes widened as he brought her hand to his mouth, his eyes holding hers as he took the cotton candy and her fingers into his mouth. Samantha slipped her fingers from his lips and quickly pulled her hand back, watching his tongue dart out across his lips, licking away the sugar crystals that clung to them.

"Is there a problem, Samantha?" he asked, watching her watch him.

Samantha heard Paul and Marko laughing and shook her head, quickly looking away as she tore off another piece of cotton candy. "No. No, there is not."

_You need to relax, _she told herself as she finished off her cotton candy with the help of the other Boys. _He's just trying to get under your skin because he knows that he can._

"Okay," she said, standing up on the bench portion of the table and tossing the cotton candy stick into the nearest trashcan which earned a loud cheer from Paul and Marko. "Can we please do something else now? Something besides shopping?"

"Like what, Sammy?" Dwayne asked, looking up at her.

Samantha shrugged and wiped her sticky hand off on the leg of her jeans. "I don't know. Maybe ride on our carousel for a bit? We haven't done that together in a while."

Paul and Marko jumped up onto the table behind her and started dancing.

"Sammy wants to ride her favorite horsey," Paul laughed, tossing his wild blond mane of hair as he danced behind her. "We have to let her do it, Davie! We have to let her take a ride on her horsey!"

Marko reached down and pulled Samantha onto the table and spun her around and around. Samantha laughed and let herself be spun around under the watchful eyes of the older Lost Boys. Marko was the more harmless of the two wild brothers, but she knew that Paul wasn't going to be ignored for long.

"Okay, okay," David said, rising to his feet and flicking his cigarette aside. "We'll take her to our carousel. Now get away from her, Marko, Paul!"

Marko released Samantha and sent her crashing back against Paul. Samantha shook her head as Paul caught her in his arms, feeling slightly dizzy from the spinning. She patted him on the chest and stepped back away from him once her dizzy spell had passed. Dwayne offered her a hand and Samantha took it, jumping down from the table.

Samantha immediately reached out and took hold of David's hand, squeezing his fingers. She tugged him along with her in the familiar direction of their carousel. Paul and Marko hopped off of the table and bounded after them, calling out to the girls that caught their attention. Samantha swung her hands, not caring how childish it was that she was swinging David's and Dwayne's hands between them. She knew it brought a smile to Dwayne's face and amused the leader of the Lost Boys.

_This must be a sight_, Samantha thought to herself as they walked through the crowd. _Four incredibly hot guys and then little old me in the middle of the pack, looking like some strange thing trying to fit in. How can they stand to have their image tainted like this? By me all of the time?_

"People are staring," Samantha commented, lowering her eyes to the boardwalk's planks as they walked. "I can feel it, you guys."

"No one is staring at you, Samantha," David said, squeezing her hand.

"David, he's here," Samantha whispered, closing her eyes.

She could feel Dwayne's eyes on her. "Sammy, Max isn't around us right now. We would tell you if he was. And get you the hell away from him."

Samantha shook her head. "It's not Max."

"Oh."

David let out a small growl. "It's Eddie, isn't it, Samantha?"

Samantha nodded slowly and hated herself for it. She hated that all of the Boys knew about her main hallucination. The one that had tormented her for years and would never go away.

"Fuck!" David growled softly, squeezing her hand tighter.

_Go away, go away…_

"I'm sorry," Samantha whispered as the Boys stopped walking with her and she felt the sting of approaching tears in her eyes. "I wish he'd just go away, David, but he won't. He just won't go away. No matter what I do and no matter what drugs I take. He won't go away."

Paul suddenly jumped in front of her and tapped her on the shoulder. Samantha opened her eyes and looked up at him. He smiled at her and then turned to face thin air. Paul lifted a finger and pointed at something that only he seemed to be able to see.

"Now see here, Old Man Eddie," he said, wagging a finger. "You have bothered our Sammy one too many times! I think it's time for you to hit the road, you!"

Marko jumped up in front of him and put his hands on his hips. "And if I don't want to?" he asked in a slightly crackling voice. "What are you going to do about it, blondie?"

Paul waved a hand in Marko's face. "I'll find a Q-tip and poke you with it, Eddie! No one messes with our little Sammy! And I mean, no one!"

The cherub faced blond stuck his chin out defiantly. "I ain't scared of you and your Q-tips! And I ain't going nowhere!" He pointed at the ground. "I'm staying right here in Sammy's head where I can make a lot of noise all day long!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

Paul took a step forward. "Well, we all say that you need to get lost, Eddie! So, get lost!"

"Nope! I'm going to stay right at home in between Sammy's ears and there's nothing you can do about it. I came first. You can leave." Marko waved his hand. "Go on, get."

Paul shook his head. "Okay, that's it. Prepare to die, Eddie!"

Samantha watched as Paul lifted a hand like he was holding something dangerous in it. Marko and he danced around a bit, circling each other like fighters before Paul darted forward, jabbing his hand towards Marko's chest. Marko clutched at his heart like he had been stabbed by something and he let out a small cough before collapsing into Paul's arms.

Samantha laughed and shook her head, blinking back her tears. Marko lifted his head away from Paul's chest as the two looked over at her, smiling.

"Are you feeling better now, Sammy?" Marko asked her, watching her.

"Did we make the bad things go away?" Paul asked, pushing Marko off of him. "Because we can do some more to get you laughing, Sammy."

Samantha smiled at them. "No, no. You're good. You did good. I just – I just wish that it would be that easy to get rid of Eddie." She sighed and rested her cheek against Dwayne's arm. "But it's not that easy. And we all wish that it was." She lifted her eyes to their faces. "Thanks for making me smile though, you two. I really appreciate it."

Paul and Marko bowed low before her, earning another laugh from her lips. "You are very welcome, little Sammy," they said in perfect unison.

Samantha shook her head again and David and Dwayne proceeded to tug her away again. She felt a little better now and the noise in her head died out slowly. It did that occasionally. Rise and fall like the ocean's tides and she didn't like that. She was used to it, but that didn't mean that she had to like it.

Samantha's green eyes turned onto the carousel that the Boys and her claimed as theirs and she smiled. It was in motion, but that didn't stop them from approaching it. David and Dwayne hoisted her onto it, releasing her hands as they did so. Samantha clung to a golden pole, feeling a little unsteady on the moving platform.

_And that's why they don't encourage people to move around on this thing when it's in motion_, Samantha thought, glancing over her shoulder as her Boys gracefully swung themselves up onto the carousel.

"Show offs," she muttered, pushing herself away from the pole and walking around the carousel in search of a place to sit.

Paul hopped along ahead of her, grabbing onto two poles and flipped over, wagging his tongue at her in mid-flip. Samantha shook her head at him and slid past him. She ran her fingers over the unoccupied, painted horses, trying to decide which one that she wanted to ride on that night.

David whistled to get her attention and Samantha turned around to find him standing next to a painted white stallion. He tapped his fingers against its neck and smirked at her.

"Well?" he prompted.

Samantha walked over to him and put her hand on the neck of the stallion. "It's pretty," she told him, glancing up at him.

David nodded and helped Samantha up onto the stallion. She gripped the pole that stuck up around the back of it and didn't mind the up-and-down motion that much. Her eyes turned out towards the outside world as the Boys surrounded her and the leader of the Lost Boys and she sighed.

"I want to look like her," she said, pointing.

"Like who?" Dwayne asked, looking out at what she was pointing to.

Samantha waited until the carousel had made another revolution. "Her. I want to look like her."

The Boys turned to see who she was pointing at and Paul and Marko laughed. Paul shook his head and jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

"You really want to look like _that_, Sammy?" he asked.

"Like a crackhead prostitute?" Marko shook his head. "That's not what we want our Sammy to look like."

Samantha pouted. "I didn't say that I wanted her lifestyle. I just want her figure. I want to look like her."

Dwayne crossed his arms over his naked chest and lifted an eyebrow. "And what's wrong with your figure, Sammy?"

Samantha pushed back her hair and frowned at him. "I don't fit in with you guys, obviously. You guys are all sexy as hell. And well, I'm not. I'm just, plain and boring. And I don't want to be that."

David growled and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look at him. "All right, we're not going to have any of that bullshit, Samantha!" He pointed a finger up in her face as his eyes glinted darkly. "There is nothing – absolutely nothing – wrong with the way that you look! If we wanted something like that tramp over there, we could get something like that easily, but we don't want that. We want you and we have you. Because we like you just the way that you fucking are. And you just can't accept that, can you?"

Paul poked her in the side. "We like our soft and squishy Sammy."

"Who is very cute and cuddly," Marko added, smiling up at her. "And not at all skanky."

Samantha sighed and pushed David's finger out of her face. "I just don't like the way that I look, you guys."

"Well tough shit," David growled. "We do and we're going to keep telling you that we do. Because you're pretty just the way that you are, Samantha. And you don't have to change for us."

Samantha looked at him, blinking. Had he just called her "pretty"? No one had done that before. No one.

"David…"

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha sang under her breath as she stood with the Boys at the back of the crowd gathered at the concert portion of the boardwalk. She didn't know who the band was that was performing, but she'd never been to a concert before and the Boys decided that that needed to change, even if it was just for a little while. They knew she needed to get home soon. Even if she didn't want to.

"The original is better," she told Dwayne as she swayed to the music. "I can't believe that these guys thought that they could do a cover of this song."

Dwayne nodded slowly. "Some people just have to ruin the classics."

"We should know," Paul said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "We were around when this song first came out, Sammy."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Please do not tell me that you guys stalked Billy Idol."

Marko put his tongue in his cheek. "Why? Do you have a crush on him too?"

The girl shook her head. "I only liked him when he was younger. That was when he was attractive to me. Now, I just don't find him that appealing."

"And yet, you still managed to crush on David Bowie before he died," David commented, eyeing her out of the corner of his eye. "And he was older than Billy Idol, Samantha."

Samantha jabbed a finger up at him. "That was different!"

"How?"

The girl frowned up at him, trying to find an argument that she could hurl up at him. Paul draped an arm around her shoulders and looked at David.

"Because Bowie had the tights, Davie," Paul said with a laugh. "And you know that our Sammy had a thing for him when he was in his Jareth tights. And when he sang to her all of the time."

Samantha blushed crimson and shoved Paul's arm off of her. She ducked under Dwayne's arm and pressed herself close to the dark-haired Lost Boy, embarrassed by the laughter coming from the two blond Lost Boys. Dwayne rubbed his hand along her arm, silently supporting her.

"It's not my fault that I got attracted to him through Labyrinth," Samantha grumbled, shaking her head as she glared at the other Lost Boys. "I can't help who I get attracted to, you know! If I could, I wouldn't have made some of my lousy decisions, now would I?"

"Probably not," David said, taking a drag on his cigarette. "Are you going to tell me where this Jordan is now? Because I'd like to talk to him about this booty call that he offered you…"

Samantha shook her head. "I'm not bringing him into my life again, David. Or yours. So, forget about him. I've moved on." She reached out and grazed her fingertips against his hand. "I've got you guys now. And that's all that matters right now."

David glanced over at her and smirked. "We really need to get you a boyfriend, Samantha."

Marko pointed up at the band and smiled. "How about one of them, Sammy?"

Samantha followed Marko's finger with her eyes and made a face. "Become a groupie, Marko? And to those posers? I don't think so."

Paul laughed and put his hands around his mouth. "Our Sammy says that you guys suck!" he shouted. "Boo! Boo!"

Marko echoed him with his own "boos" and raised his middle finger in the air. Samantha laughed and shook her head as Dwayne started swaying with her. She leaned into him and listened to him start quietly singing in her ear. She loved it when Dwayne got the chance to sing and dance with her as he didn't do it as often as Paul and Marko did.

_And he's only done it once_, Samantha thought glumly, glancing over at David, who was watching the band once more. _I wonder if he's going to do it with me again or if it was only a one-time thing. God, I hope that he does dance with me again. Even if my heart does that weird fluttery thing again. I can handle it. I think._

"You're staring," Dwayne whispered in her ear.

Samantha jumped slightly and shook her head. "I'm not!"

"Is something going on between you two?"

Samantha shook her head again. "Why would there be, Dwayne? We're friends. I'm friends with all of you, remember? You're little Sister. And I can't be with any of you without breaking hearts, now can I?" She pointed at Paul's back as he flirted with another girl. "He'd probably cry if I tried to get together with anyone that wasn't him."

Dwayne smiled slightly. "He'd probably have a hissy fit on the day that you get a boyfriend and try to crash your wedding…Don't worry. We'll be there to stop him from taking you away from your future husband, Sammy. We want you to be happy."

Samantha nodded and turned around in his arms, wrapping her own around him. She pressed her cheek against his chest and let him guide her into a small dance. "I know, Dwayne. And I really appreciate that."

Dwayne slid his hands under her jacket and smoothed his hands over her back as he danced with her. "We love you, Sammy."

A hum passed through Samantha's lips and she closed her eyes as the crowd roared for the band. Dwayne's body stilled for just a moment as the music ended and then a new song started. Samantha opened her eyes with a groan and she shook her head.

"Seriously!" she complained, lifting her head from Dwayne's chest. "They are ruining so many good songs tonight! It's – it's criminal!"

Marko nodded and cupped his hands around his mouth. "You guys fucking suck!"

"Respect the classics, fuckers!" Paul shouted, tossing his blond hair.

"Don't quit your day jobs!" Dwayne called out, earning a laugh from Samantha since he never shouted around her.

"You're making my ears bleed, you stupid posers!" Samantha yelled, not caring if she could be heard or not.

David pulled his cigarette from between his lips. "Stop squealing around on stage, you fuckers!"

Samantha laughed at that and bumped her fist against his arm. David glanced over at her and smirked.

"You ready to leave, Samantha?" he asked, turning to her.

Samantha pouted. "Does that mean that I have to go home now? Because I really don't want to go home so soon, David…It feels like I just got here with you Boys."

David nodded. "We have to take you home, Samantha. But not immediately."

"Not immediately?"

"No. We'll take you on a ride around town since you haven't been on a long ride in a while." He flicked aside his cigarette like it disinterested him and offered his hand to her. "Will that make your night end better, Samantha?"

Samantha nodded and stepped out of Dwayne's arms, taking David's hand. "It would."

David pulled her to his side and let her start swinging their hands between them. Samantha was immediately surrounded by the other Boys as they walked away from the concert portion of the boardwalk. On the way past Video Max, all of the Boys and Samantha lifted their middle fingers when they caught sight of Max and all of them, except for David burst out laughing at the shocked expression on Max's face. Samantha pressed her face against David's arm as they neared the four motorcycles at the entrance to the boardwalk.

"Oh, you guys are so going to pay for that later," she laughed, shaking her head as she breathed in the scent of David's leather jacket. "I'm sorry about that."

"We're not," David said, shaking his head. "And you shouldn't be either, Samantha. Max can't touch you. And he knows better than to fuck with us."

"Yeah," Paul agreed, bouncing ahead of her. "We're his favorites." He poked her on the tip of her nose. "And you are our favorite squishy thing, Sammy."

Samantha snapped her teeth at his finger and he laughed.

"I'm in love!" he declared, putting his hand on his chest and staggering backwards, almost tripping over his bike.

Marko laughed at him and darted around to mount his motorcycle. "Careful Paul! Sammy won't miss you if you break your neck and then I get to have her all to myself."

Paul popped onto his feet and looked hurt. "She would so! I'm her favorite!"

Samantha shook her head. "I don't pick favorites, Paul. I can't. It'd hurt you Boys if I did."

David pulled her towards his motorcycle before releasing her hand. Samantha waited for him to mount his bike first before climbing on behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and scooted herself forward until she could comfortably place her chin on his shoulder.

"Okay," she said in his ear. "Let's get the hell out of here and hit the town."

David patted her on the thigh and nodded. "Let's roll!"

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha stared up at her house after David and the Lost Boys had taken her around Santa Carla on a long motorcycle joyride, leaning back against David's motorcycle. Paul and Marko kept nudging each other while David and Dwayne stood silently, waiting for her to say something, anything. Samantha sighed and pushed her hair back away from her face.

"I guess this is where we part ways," she muttered, pushing herself away from David's bike. "I have my key this time, so no ladders tonight."

"And you're not going to let us in this time, Sammy?" Paul whined, frowning at her. "But we want to tuck you in!"

Samantha shook her head. "I did some stuff in my room that I don't need you all to see, Paul. It's kind of messy right now and…I really don't need many witnesses to it. Please, don't sneak back in there after I go to sleep and try to snoop around. I'll handle it myself later."

"Okay, Sammy," Marko said, nodding his head. "We'll keep out, but only for tonight."

Samantha ducked her head at that. "Thanks Marko." She opened her arms up. "Okay. Hugs now. And I want lots of them."

Marko jumped forward and wrapped his arms around her, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "I love you, Sammy," he told her, nuzzling his face against her neck so that his curls tickled her. "I really hope that we made you smile a lot tonight, especially after that Eddie thing."

Samantha nodded and pressed a kiss to his cheek as she wrapped her arms around him. "You did, Marko. You really did. I love you."

He pressed another kiss to her cheek before stepping back. "Goodnight Sammy."

"Goodnight."

Paul swaggered forward with a bounce in his step, wagging his tongue at her. Samantha circled around him, eyeing him with a warning in her eye. Paul darted one way and then the other, Samantha keeping him in her sights, just in case. He laughed and straightened, putting his tongue back in his mouth. Samantha let herself relax before opening her arms back to him.

"Come here," she ordered.

Paul pulled her into his arms and lifted her into the air, swinging her around and peppered her face with light kisses. Samantha pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his lips and rested her forehead against his as his laughing eyes stared into her green ones.

"My Sammy," he laughed at her. "We had a good time, didn't we?" She nodded. "And we're going to have a bunch more, Princess. I promise that we're going to party every night on the boardwalk and dance the night away. If you'll let us, sweet thing!"

"Just don't touch my ass again and we've got a deal," Samantha said with a smile. "I love you, Paul. And you're the only Paul that I'm ever going to say that to ever again."

Paul pressed a loud kiss to her forehead. "And I love you too, my Sammy! My little squishy, cute Sammy!"

Samantha squirmed out of his arms and felt the joy of being on solid ground again. Paul skipped back over to his motorcycle and smacked his hand against Marko's, leaning his arm on Marko's shoulder. Dwayne looked down at Samantha as he approached her.

Samantha jumped up and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face against his neck. Dwayne chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close as his hands slid along her back. Samantha lifted her face away from his neck and brushed her lips against the corner of his lips, feeling him do the same to her.

"Did you really have fun with us tonight, Sammy?" he asked her, holding her close to him.

The girl nodded and smoothed her hands along the flesh of his back underneath his jacket. "I did. Thanks for singing to me back at the concert, Dwayne. And dancing and for being so concerned about, well, you know. You're the big brother that I never got blessed with from Mom and Dad. And I'm really grateful for that."

Dwayne smiled and squeezed her around the middle. "Anytime, Sammy. You are very important to me. To all of us." His eyes slid away from hers for a moment. "Maybe to some more than others."

Samantha didn't understand what that meant. She tapped her fingertips against his skin to get his attention back onto her again.

"Dwayne, I love you," she told him quietly. "Very, very much. And I'm going to keep doing so, even when I get a boyfriend and married. Okay?"

Dwayne nodded and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you too, Sammy. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Dwayne."

Samantha watched Dwayne part from her, his arms sliding away from her. She shoved her hands back into her pockets and looked over at David, her fingers closing in over her keys. The platinum haired Lost Boy looked down at her as he walked towards her.

"You're not getting a hug," she told him suddenly, looking up at him.

"I'm not," he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"No," Samantha said, shaking her head. "You're coming inside the house with me. And _then _you're getting your hug after you tuck me in." She looked back at Paul as he began to whine. "Shut up, Paul. I said that I didn't want many witnesses and you got your goodnight hugs and kisses. So, deal with it." She gestured over at Dwayne and Marko. "You two hold him if he tries to make a break for it."

"On it, Sammy," Marko said, giving her a salute.

Samantha didn't miss the smug look in David's eyes as she looked back at him. She frowned up at him and then started walking over to her house. The girl withdrew her key and fit it into the lock of the front door, stepping inside. David slid into the house behind her and then locked the door behind her. Samantha led him upstairs and down the dark hall, past the closed doors of her sisters' bedrooms.

"You weren't lying when you said that your room was a mess, Samantha," David commented when she led him into the darkened room. "It's not like you to be this messy. What happened in here?"

Samantha shrugged and waited for him to flick on the lamp beside her bed, filling the room with light. She glanced around at her messed up floor and the notebooks that were strewn about on her desk. "I had a moment. A chaotic moment that I don't want to talk about, David." She glanced up at his concerned gaze and then lowered her own to the floor again. "Please don't make me."

David nodded and crossed the room, putting his hands on her cheek, brushing back her hair. "I won't make you talk right now, Samantha," he promised softly. "But you need to know that you _can _talk to me about this. You do have a friend in me. Even if I am an asshole."

"You are my favorite kind," Samantha said just as softly.

David tilted his head to the side and brushed her hair farther back. "Hey," he said, his eyes glinting. "You're wearing my earrings tonight."

Samantha nodded slowly with a smile. "I thought you'd like to see me wearing them, David. I like them." She lifted one of her hands and wiggled her fingers. "I'm wearing my rings too."

He tilted her chin up and looked at her neck. "And the choker." He chuckled. "You're shaping up to be a good little Lost Girl after all, Samantha. I'm proud of you."

Samantha lowered her chin when he let her go. "Thanks, David."

David nodded and then parted from her. Samantha turned and watched him walk into her walk-in closet which she knew he had no business walking into. She rolled her eyes and followed him into the small space to find him rummaging through her dresser again. Samantha leaned against the wall and watched him.

"What are you doing now?" she asked, watching him make some faces at her scant clothing options.

"Considering buying you some more clothes," David muttered, running his fingers through her clothes. "Seriously, I can't believe that a Lost Girl would wear some of this shit."

"There's nothing wrong with what I wear," Samantha grumbled, shaking her head. "And I thought you said that there wasn't anything wrong with the way that I looked, David."

David glanced at her and smirked. "So, you were listening."

Samantha stuck her tongue out at him. He snapped his teeth at her, causing her to quickly pull her tongue back into her mouth. She hated when the Boys did that to her, especially David. He chuckled and looked back into her dresser.

"Here," he said, pulling a pair of shorts and a black camisole out of a drawer. This time, no bra. He shoved the drawer shut and held out the clothes to her. "Take these and change. I'll be waiting for you when you come back, Samantha."

Samantha shrugged out of her jacket and hung it up before taking the clothes. "Okay, but don't touch anything on the floor, David. I can clean that up on my own in the morning." She paused for a moment. "And don't read any more of my books in progress. I don't need you to get any more ideas about teasing me."

David smirked. "Still embarrassed about sex, Samantha?"

Samantha shook her head and turned away. "I'm not going to answer that."

She slipped out of her room and walked down the hall to the bathroom. She closed the door and leaned back against it for a moment, holding her clothes against her chest.

_Get a grip on yourself_, she told herself, shaking her head again. _This is just like any other night with David and you're used to it. You shouldn't let him get you flustered like this. Just get dressed and go back to him. And get this all over with. Tomorrow night will just be another night on the boardwalk with the Boys and everything about this night will just be a memory. A happy, awkward memory._

Samantha quickly changed out of her day clothes and into the clothes that David had shoved into her hands. She did her normal nightly routine before slapping off the lights and skipping back to her room. As she slid into the bedroom and closed the door, she noticed that the leader of the Lost Boys was not sitting at her desk, reading one of her books like she thought he was going to be. No, he was lying on her bed with one of his hands tucked behind his head, watching the door like he was waiting for her to come back to the room.

_And somehow, he still manages to look like a dangerous sex god on my bed_, Samantha thought, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back against her bedroom door, staring at him. _They all look like that, but somehow David does it with so much power. I wonder how he does it. It must be all that leather._

David patted the spot on the bed next to him as he drew back the covers. "Come here, Samantha. I won't bite."

Samantha wanted to laugh at the comment. Vampires bit and bit often.

But she remembered something and it was something important. Very important.

"Give me a second," she muttered, pushing herself away from the door. "I have to do something first before I crawl into bed with you, David."

She felt David's eyes on her as she walked over to her desk and popped open one of the drawers. Her eyes saddened as she pulled out the small orange bottles and unscrewed the lids, knocking some pills onto her hand. She screwed the lids back into place and shoved the bottles back into her drawer. Samantha bumped the drawer shut with her hip and then grabbed a water bottle from the top of her desk, thankful that she had left it on her desk from earlier that day.

"I really hate these things," she muttered, knowing that David could hear her as she stared down at the pills sitting on her palm.

"You won't have to take them forever, Samantha," David said from her bed, watching her.

_Yes, I will,_ Samantha thought bitterly, putting them in her mouth and swallowing them. _But it's sweet to think that you hope that I won't have to._

Samantha quickly chased the pills down with a swig of water and set the bottle down on her desk, shaking her head as she closed her eyes briefly. She hated taking medications. But it was an unavoidable part of her life with all of her medical issues. Thanks to her heritage, she had to deal with a lot of medical bullshit and it annoyed her and it would probably haunt her future children, should she be lucky enough to have any.

"Okay, that's that," Samantha said, releasing her water bottle and turning to face David. "No more meds until tomorrow morning. Thank God!"

"Hallelujah," David echoed, patting the empty space next to him again. "Come here, little Lost Girl."

Samantha crossed the room and slid onto the bed next to David, letting him draw her to his side. David twitched the black blankets up over her hips and then smoothed his hand over her back, running his fingers over her. Samantha's heart did that fluttery again. She sighed and rested her cheek against his chest.

"I had fun tonight," she whispered, breathing in the scent of his cologne and cigarettes. "Especially the dancing with you part."

"We were interrupted," David reminded her.

"It's okay," Samantha told him quietly. "It was nice while it lasted."

"It's not okay, Samantha. I shouldn't have let them stop us. I should have told them to fuck off and kept dancing with you. I never should have let you lose that smile for a moment."

Samantha patted him on the chest. "David, it's okay. Really. You made me happy tonight just by dancing with me. We've never done that before. Honestly, I couldn't care if we only danced for a couple seconds before Paul and Marko came up and stopped us. It's fine. So, relax. I'm happy. And that's all that matters to me. That's all that should matter to you too. If anything."

David sighed and continued to stroke her back. "Fine. But next time I dance with you, if you still want to dance with me, we're not getting interrupted by any fucker, Samantha."

"Okay, David, okay."

Samantha relaxed her body against his and sighed, closing her eyes for just a moment. She ran her fingers over his chest, feeling his hard muscles through the fabric of his shirt and frowned to herself.

"David, I'm confused," Samantha told him softly.

"About what?" David asked.

"About how I feel when I'm around you," Samantha admitted with a frown. "You…you make me feel strange, David."

David shifted his body slightly against hers. "Strange?"

Samantha nodded, her cheek rubbing against him. "Yeah, strange. I mean, I feel different things when I'm around the other Boys, but you make me feel…well, strange. There's no other way that I can describe it." She reached around and grabbed the hand that was rubbing her back and pressed it against her chest, right over her heart. "I get this weird feeling in my chest when I'm around you and it's like that moment in the MRI that I told you about when they put the contrast in me, David."

She lifted her head slightly and looked at him as he pressed his fingers against her chest. Samantha knew that he was surprised that she was letting him touch her chest. No one had ever been allowed to touch her there. She had a thing about people touching her anywhere near her small breasts because she was self-conscious, but she was letting him do it now. And her heart was doing that weird fluttery thing again, just like the contrast reaction that had got the Boys riled up at her for not telling the MRI technician about it. How could she have been so stupid when they couldn't get to her in the day hours, when she could have easily died on the table with complications and taken her away from them for good?

David's eyes lifted her to face after a moment and his lips tugged into a smirk. No, a smile, Samantha realized. "Samantha, I think I know what that strange feeling is," he told her softly.

"Really?" Samantha asked, lowering her hand from his, though his hand remained pressed over her heart.

David nodded slowly.

"Well, are you going to tell me about it?" Samantha asked, tilting her head to the side.

David shook his head slowly and shifted his hand back onto her back. "Not tonight, Samantha. I'll tell you your answer tomorrow," he promised softly. "And that's a promise, little Lost Girl."

Samantha sighed and settled back against him. "Fine. But I want my answer tomorrow night, David. In a clear manner." She nuzzled her face against his chest. "I'm guessing that you're coming to collect me in front of the house?"

David nodded and stroked his fingers against her back. "Yeah. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

"No, it's bound to happen that Mom and Dad see you Boys around here. I might as well let them see you before something happens that shocks them." Samantha tapped her fingers against his chest. "Just promise that you'll keep Marko and Paul in line. I don't want Mom to get too shocked by those two."

"Deal."

Samantha lifted her head slightly and looked at him. "I love you, David. And thank you again, for dancing with me and taking care of me tonight."

David nodded and brushed his lips against hers like only he was allowed to do. "I love you too, Samantha." He wrapped an arm around her and drew her close to him before placing another kiss, this time to her forehead, on her. "Goodnight."

Samantha watched him start to rise from her bed before remembering something. "Wait!" she said, reaching out and catching him by the hand.

David turned and looked at her. "What?"

Samantha held her hand out to him. "Give them to me," she ordered quietly.

"Give what to you?"

Samantha rolled her eyes at the question. "The fuzzy handcuffs, David. Give them back to me, right now."

David smirked and put one of his hands in pocket. "I thought you didn't like them, Samantha."

"I didn't say that I didn't like them. I was just embarrassed by the fact that you were teasing me about them. And they're mine. You gave them to me. So, I want them back." She held her hand out to him and wiggled her fingers. "Give me. Give me."

David withdrew the purple fuzzy handcuffs and dangled them in front of her face. "The offer still stands for me to show you how to use these, Samantha."

Samantha shook her head and snatched them out of David's hand. "No, thank you. I'll learn how to use them by myself, David. And don't you dare tell the Boys that you gave them to me."

David looked mildly hurt by that. "Would I do something like that to you, Samantha?"

Samantha frowned up at him as she shoved the fuzzy handcuffs under her pillow until she could find a better place to hide them from her family and the other Boys. "You might."

"I might need another kiss to heal that wound, Samantha."

Samantha considered flipping him off, but didn't. She shook her head again and held her hand to ward him off. "Not tonight, David. I can hear the Boys starting to act up outside. You might want to get going before Mom and Dad wake up to find the strange kids on the lawn."

David sighed and stood next to the bed, looking down at her. "So, you really will let us collect you tomorrow night?"

Samantha nodded. "That was the deal, David. I'm not ashamed of you Boys."

David smirked down at her and placed his fingers under her chin, smoothing his thumb over her bottom lip. "Goodnight, Samantha."

"Goodnight, David."

Samantha settled back onto her pillows and watched David flick off the lamp beside her bed before he crossed over to her window. He popped open the window and put a knee on the sill and looked over at her.

"Sweet dreams, Samantha," he said softly, eyes almost glowing in the dim light filtering through the window.

"Thanks David," Samantha whispered, feeling the pull of her sleeping medication on her system. "I'll see you tomorrow night."

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha had spent the following morning and most of the afternoon cleaning her room up from her chaotic moment and had finally found a place to hide her fuzzy handcuffs from the Boys and her family. She danced down the steps that night, pulling her hair back into a long ponytail, even though she knew that the Boys didn't care much for her doing that. Her ears gleamed with one of the pairs of earrings that David had picked out for her and her body was already cloaked in the leather jacket.

"Mom!" she called out as she headed into the kitchen. "I'm going to be going out tonight and – Oh! Hello!"

She stopped in the kitchen when she saw that her mother and father were standing in the kitchen right across from her Boys. Her mother looked shocked that there were four incredibly hot and dangerous Boys in leather standing there in her kitchen while Samantha's father looked oddly amused. Paul and Marko laughed and waved at her, calling out greetings that seemed to shock Samantha's mother more. David and Dwayne watched her quietly and Samantha noticed the strange intense look in David's eyes.

"Samantha," her mother said, turning to face her daughter. "Who are these boys that say that they want to take you out for the night?"

Samantha sighed and knew that her mother wasn't too happy with her. "Mom, it's okay. These are some friends of mine that I met on the boardwalk." She lifted a hand and pointed at the Boys. "That's Marko and Paul. And that's Dwayne and…David."

The Boys waved as Samantha introduced them to her parents.

"Hey Mrs. S," Paul greeted. "We're Sammy's best friends! And we love her bunches! Don't we, Marko?"

Marko nodded and bit down on his thumbnail.

Samantha's mother started to open her mouth to say something, but Samantha's father shook his head with a smile.

"It's okay," he told her. "It's about time that Sam decided to hang out with some guys outside of her normal circle. Maybe she'll finally get a date and move out of the house."

Samantha made a face at that comment, even though it brought a goofy smile to Marko and Paul's faces. "Gee, thanks for that, Dad. I'm glad to know you love me so much that you want me out of the house so fast."

She walked over to her parents and gave them a brief hug each, not really minding that her dad didn't give her a hug back. He rarely did. "I'll be back late," she told them. "I'm an adult, so I can do that, right?" She didn't wait for an answer before turning her back on them and walking over to her Boys. "Okay, let's go."

Paul and Marko shouted out to her parents before bounding out after Samantha. Samantha shook her head as she stepped out onto her front lawn and sighed.

"Okay, that went better than I thought it would," she admitted, turning to face the Lost Boys as they surrounded her. "I thought that Mom was going to blow a gasket or faint when she saw you the first time. But she didn't and that's a good thing. You did good, you guys. I'm proud of you."

"Thank you, thank you," Paul said, bowing several times before her.

Samantha laughed and patted him on the back. "Okay, enough of that Paul. You're getting weird again."

Paul laughed and popped onto his feet.

"Yeah, Paul," Marko said, elbowing his wild blond brother in the side. "You're making our Sammy feel weird. And that's not nice."

"Yeah, well your face is weird," Paul shot back, elbowing Marko in his side.

"Your hair is weirder."

"Okay, Cupid! That's it!"

Samantha watched as the two started wrestling on her front lawn and shook her head. Her lips twitched at the corner as her green eyes turned back onto David and Dwayne. David was looking down at her with that strange intense look in his eyes again.

_Speaking of making me feel weird_, Samantha thought, putting her hands on her hips and tapping her fingers against them. _All right. Answer time._

"David," she said softly. "Can I have my answer now?"

Dwayne glanced over at the platinum blond. "What is she talking about, David?"

David ignored Dwayne as he crossed the distance between Samantha and him. Samantha looked up at the leader of the Lost Boys, a frown tugging at her lips. His blue eyes held hers captive and her heart did that fluttery thing again.

"You deserve your answer, Samantha," he told her softly.

"Good," Samantha said, hands still firmly on her hips. "So, start talking."

David didn't talk. He just moved quickly and it startled Samantha greatly.

His hands cupped her face between them and tilted her face up. Samantha's eyes widened slightly as his face lowered towards hers and then he pressed his lips against hers. It was like their goodnight kisses, but not a quick brushing of the lips. No, this was more tender. Less of a brushing and more pressure. Samantha closed her eyes at the contact and kissed him back before she could stop herself.

David parted from her after a moment and rested his forehead against hers.

"Okay," Samantha said softly, looking up at him as Paul and Marko stopped wrestling to watch what David had done to her. "That was…unexpected and weird."

David sighed. "Am I going to have to sit down with you and explain what's going on, Samantha? Are you really that clueless?"

Samantha shook her head slowly and smiled softly. "I think I can figure this out on my own." She turned her gaze onto Dwayne. "You might want to put your hands over Paul's eyes, Dwayne. He might wet himself when he sees what I'm about to do."

Dwayne smiled at her.

"What's she going to do, Dwayne?" Paul asked, looking confused and excited at the same time. "What's my Sammy going to do?"

Even David looked slightly confused. "Samantha?"

Samantha wrapped her fingers in the collar of his inner jacket and pulled his face back down to hers. "Come here, asshole."

She brushed her lips against his again, not really knowing why she was doing it, but she knew that she was going to do it again and again. Because he wasn't going to let her stop. And she wasn't going to stop him.

David's hands slid around her waist and drew her closer to him. Paul let out a loud laugh and she could hear him jumping up and down.

"Look at our Sammy!" he shouted. "Look at her, Marko!"

Samantha pulled back from David when he let her, so that she could breathe. He smirked down at her and lifted an eyebrow.

"So," he said with a slight teasing manner. "How about I show you how to use those handcuffs, Samantha?"

Her cheeks flooded with heat. "David!"

"What handcuffs?" Dwayne asked from where he stood watching the two of them.

"Sammy has handcuffs?" Marko laughed, holding his stomach.

"Ooh!" Paul tossed his hair. "Our Sammy is getting kinky on us, Marko! I'm so proud of you, Sammy!"

Samantha would have turned and gone to punch the wild blond, but David held her in place. She looked up at him and he was smirking at her again. Samantha smiled up at him, knowing that he was just messing with her again. He pressed another kiss to her forehead and held her close to him.

Samantha knew that she was not only the Boys', but now apparently, she was David's and they weren't about to let her go.

**OOOOOOOOO**

**A/N: I really never intended to turn this into a David/OC story, but somehow it happened. He, admittedly, is my favorite Lost Boy and I don't really know why. Must be the hair and the attitude. And yes, Eddie is a real thing and he is a big nuisance. If you have questions about anything, let me hear them in the review section and I'll try to get back to you. I like reviews as much as I like favorites, and maybe just a little more. Honestly, I do because I can talk back to you. And that's rather nice, right? Right. So, this concludes this story. I don't think I'm going to write anything else on Theirs. I like how I ended it right here. Even if I didn't intend for it to end this way. Let me know what you think, people, please! I crave some reviews like I crave the time to watch the Lost Boys movie, which I haven't been able to do in a long time! Thanks for the support and much love to all of you! -Scarlet**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hello! It's me again. And yes, I said that the last update was probably going to be the last update for Theirs, but I felt like doing something more with this thing. And this update is very, very, very personal. There's some stuff in here that gets deep. Really deep. If it makes you awkward, sorry in advance. I've been dealing with some hard crap and it had to come out some way. And this helped. My Boys helped me somewhat. So here goes…**

**OOOOOOOOO**

Samantha was curled up on her bed when she heard a soft knock on her door and she lifted her eyes as it opened. Her mother poked her head in and then opened the door wider. Samantha's green eyes widened for a moment when she saw her favorite Lost Boys standing just behind her mother. The Lost Boys that she had been avoiding for a week. Including David, her boyfriend.

"Look who came to see you," her mother said, her hand resting on the doorknob while Paul and Marko waved at her, their familiar goofy smiles on their faces. "Again."

Samantha wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin on them, saying nothing. She had known that the Boys had tried to come and see her, but she had told her parents to tell them that she was sick. But obviously, they weren't falling for it anymore.

"I'll leave you all alone," her mother said, letting the Boys into the room and shutting the door behind her.

Samantha saw Paul and Marko start to make their way over to her and knew she had to stop them.

"Do not touch me," she ordered, making them freeze. "Do not come near me. Do not look at me. Please. Just go away."

"Sammy?" Paul asked, frowning.

"What is the matter with you, Samantha?" David demanded, crossing over to stand at the foot of her bed. "You haven't been to the boardwalk in a week. You've been avoiding us just as long. You've put fucking crosses on your window and bedroom door to keep us from coming in. What the hell is going on?"

Samantha flinched at the anger in his voice and lowered her eyes to the blankets. She hated it when David got mad at her and he didn't do it often. But it always hurt when he did.

She took a slow, deep breath, knowing that it was going to hurt worse to tell them what had happened, but it had to come out.

"Do you really want to know?" she asked, not looking up at him.

"Yes."

"I almost killed myself," Samantha whispered, afraid to say the words.

David put his hands on the foot of the bed, his ice blue eyes flashing. "You did what?"

Samantha closed her eyes. "I almost killed myself, David."

"Sammy!" Dwayne exclaimed and she could feel him and the other two Boys pressing in closer to her. "What happened, Sammy?"

"I – I don't know, really," Samantha said, shaking her head as she opened her eyes slowly. "I felt like shit when I came home from work one day and I popped online to chat with one of my friends and my sister just started harassing me. And I couldn't take it anymore. I locked myself in my room and I turned my music up loud. I cried and I cried. People kept telling me to ignore her, but I couldn't. She kept at me for over an hour and I kept replaying that horrible scene of that day from when I was a child of what almost happened to me, David. That made me uncomfortable in my own skin."

She shivered and lifted her eyes briefly to see that both Paul and Marko looked like they were going to cry. And she hated herself for doing that to them.

"I wanted to put bleach in my eyes," she continued. "It was the third time that I wanted to do that. I wanted to be done, even if it meant that I never saw any of you again. And I hated that. I hated my sister for doing that to me. And I reached out to my brother-in-law for some reason and he told me that he was coming for me, even though he was in another part of the state in his semi. David, he held onto me for so long that night and he made me promise to not hurt myself or he'd kick my ass back from Heaven and beat my ass some more."

She closed her eyes again and sagged back against her pillows, rather than look at the pain that she was causing the Boys that she loved so much.

"It turns out that I shouldn't have been given two medications together. That it could have killed me with my weak mental constitution. The doctor told me to stop taking the sleeping one immediately, but I'd stopped that night. I was too scared to die. I promised my brother-in-law and my best friend that I wasn't going to leave or hurt myself. Or he'd beat my ass up."

"Good for him," David said, crossing around the foot of the bed to sit next to her. "We're in the same mindset."

Samantha made a small sound and opened her eyes as David drew her into his arms, crushing her against his chest. She smacked her hand against his chest, not wanting to be touched and wanting to at the same time. David didn't let her go though. He just held onto her tighter.

"Samantha, don't you ever think for a moment that we're going to let you go," David told her softly, squeezing her. "You are very important to us and we love you. I fucking love you, you stupid girl. And you can't let your sister or this sickness let you get to you for one moment like this because without you – where do you think we'll be?"

Samantha smacked her hand against his chest again, but weaker this time. She closed her fingers around the fabric of his inner jacket and tugged. Her lungs took in the scent of his cologne and cigarettes and her eyes smarted with tears.

"David, I'm – I'm sorry," Samantha whispered against his chest. "I didn't want to go, but I got scared and depressed and I…" She tugged on his jacket again and let the tears fall.

David held onto her as she cried and his fingers smoothed over her back. Samantha knew that she had cried too much these past few days, but she couldn't help it. With David holding her, she felt like crying was okay.

The leader of the Lost Boys pulled back when her sobs faded slowly and looked down into her eyes. His thumb gently rubbed away a tear. "Samantha, will you promise me and the Boys that you will never take yourself away from us?" he asked, his face completely serious. "Or hurt yourself?"

Samantha nodded slowly and sniffled, feeling gross. "I promise."

"Good." He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "I love you, Samantha."

"Love you too." Her eyes turned towards the other Boys, who had crowded around her bed. "Please don't cry, Marko, Paul. I don't want you to cry over me."

Paul wiped at his face. "I'm not crying, Sammy." He laughed nervously and looked at Marko. "Am I, Marko?"

Marko shook his head and sniffed. "Nope. I don't think so. Am I?"

"A bit, buddy."

Samantha shook her head. "You two are seriously going to get me crying again." She held her arms up. "Come here. Give me hugs."

David parted from her and let Paul and Marko swarm over to her. Paul and Marko crushed her between them and buried their faces against her hair and neck. Samantha closed her eyes and tried to convince herself not to cry again.

_I can't believe I let myself get so lost that I almost took myself away from my best friends_, Samantha thought as Marko pressed a kiss to her hair and patted her on the back. _What really would have happened if I did leave them? Would they have gone mad without me? Would Santa Carla have survived? Would they?_

Samantha told herself not to think about that. It wasn't going to happen. It _hadn't_ happened. She was still here with her Boys, her David, and she wasn't going anywhere until her time.

"Do you want to go to the boardwalk, Sammy?" Dwayne asked as Paul pressed a kiss to her neck and then parted from her.

"Sure," Samantha said, setting her hands on her lap. "I need to get out of this house for something other than work which is Hell on Earth, by the way."

"Then why do you stay?" David asked, eyeing her.

Samantha shrugged her shoulders. "Lack of options right now."

"We'll get you out of there."

"Thanks." She glanced over at her closet door. "I guess that means I need to get dressed. I can't just go out in my pajamas on the boardwalk."

Paul's eyes lit up and he bounced on his feet excitedly. "Can I pick out your clothes, my Sammy? I want to poke my head in your closet again! It's awesome in there!"

David let out a small growl. "You aren't going in there, Paul!" He held out a hand to Samantha. "Come on."

"David!" Paul whined, crossing his arms. "Ever since you became her boyfriend, you've never let us in there anymore. It's no fun."

"Deal with it."

Samantha smiled apologetically at her blond best friend and let David pull her to her feet. She tugged on the bottom of her pajama shirt and followed David over to her walk-in closet. He guided her inside it and started rummaging through her clothes.

"David, I don't want to wear anything constraining tonight," she told him softly. "For some reason, I just can't do it."

David looked over at her for a moment and nodded. "Okay." He plucked a couple hangers off of her rack and held the clothes out to her. "How about these, Samantha?"

Samantha looked at her campfire tank top and black denim leggings and sighed. "They'll be fine. But not my choker tonight. Or any other jewelry, including your earrings. I'm sorry, David."

David shook his head and gave her the clothes. "Don't apologize, Samantha. I'd rather you be comfortable after all of this…" He glanced around them. "Do you want me to leave while you change?"

Samantha lifted an eyebrow. "Do you really expect me to let you stay while I change?"

A smirk touched his face. "Well, I am your boyfriend."

"And I'm still not comfortable with people seeing me without clothes on. So, get out of here."

David rolled his eyes. "I'll see you eventually. And touch you. Everywhere. I mean, _everywhere_."

A shiver went down Samantha's spine but she tried to hide it as she pointed at her door. "Uh-huh. Out."

"I'm going. I'm going. Just don't take too long. I can't keep the Boys in line for too long after not having you for so long." David turned and walked out, closing the door behind him.

"Asshole," Samantha muttered, turning her back and lifting her shirt off.

"I heard that," David called through the door.

"I didn't think that you wouldn't," Samantha called back with a small smile.

She quickly changed clothes and stepped into some shoes. Samantha pulled her closet door open and stepped out into her room. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw that Dwayne was dropping the cross from her window on the floor with a pained look on his face.

"Dwayne!" she exclaimed, stepping forward. "I was going to do that! I know you can't touch crosses!" She held her hand out to him. "Let me see your hand!"

Dwayne shook his head and held his hand behind his back. "You don't need to look at it, Sammy," he told her. "Trust me, you don't need to. I can already feel it healing."

Samantha rolled her eyes and marched over to her door, pulling it open. She ripped the cross off of it before any of her Boys could get the wise idea to touch it and tossed it into the trash.

"Seriously, you lot can be so dumb," she told them, glaring at them. "What am I to do with you?"

"Dance with us!" Paul sang, bouncing on his toes.

"Party all night long," Marko offered, hiding his Cheshire smile behind his thumbnail.

Dwayne shrugged his shoulders.

"Continue loving us like you do, Samantha," David said, holding his hand out to her.

Samantha sighed and took hold of his hand. "Okay, okay. I'll do all of that. But I want you all to stop touching things that are going to hurt you."

She let David pull her from her room and the Boys instantly followed after the two of them. Her sisters were hidden in their rooms, something that they did whenever there was company over. The Lost Boys howled as they skipped down the hall and down the stairs. Samantha's parents looked up from the kitchen table as Samantha paused next to David's side.

"We're going out," Samantha announced, pocketing her key and cellphone.

"About time too," her father said, looking over at David. "You did good getting her out of the house, David."

David smirked down at Samantha, his ice blue eyes flashing. "I know."

Samantha stuck her tongue out at him briefly. "I don't know when I'll be back, so don't wait up. I can let myself in."

"Bye Mr. and Mrs. S!" Paul and Marko laughed, waving as the group left the house.

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha was happy as she rode on the back of David's motorcycle through the town with the Boys around them. She needed the fresh air around her, though she wasn't sure if she could call the smog fresh. She was confused when David pulled his bike to a stop and killed the engine. The Boys quickly followed suit, though they didn't turn their bikes off.

"David, what are we doing?" she asked as he kicked the kickstand down.

"We're going to try something," David announced, turning his head slightly to look at her.

"Try something?" Samantha repeated.

David nodded and climbed off his motorcycle. He gestured at it. "Scoot forward."

Samantha realized what he was talking about in that instant and her eyes widened. "You – you want me to drive your motorcycle?"

"Yes."

"But David, I don't even have a driver's license! And I can't drive to save my life!" She looked back at his bike. "I'll wreck this thing!"

"No, you won't. I'll be right behind you the entire time," David promised softly. "And I'll help you, Samantha."

"David…"

"Do it, Sammy," Paul urged, revving his motorcycle. "Do it!"

"Do it!" Marko sang, bouncing on his seat. "Do it!"

Samantha shook her head. "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you? None of you are."

"Not a chance, Sammy," Dwayne said, crossing his arms over his naked chest as his motorcycle idled in the street.

Samantha rolled her eyes and scooted forward until she was situated where David had been moments before. "I don't like this, David," she confided as he mounted behind her, putting his hands over hers on the handlebars. "I really don't know what I'm doing."

"We'll ease you into it," David told her, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Just relax and do what I tell you to do."

Samantha listened to David's instructions and drove the motorcycle into the street. She was shaky at first and wove through the lane, but David was patient. He guided her hands and let her drive slowly for a while. She didn't like it when Paul and Marko sped crazily ahead of her and David snarled at them, ordering them to cut it out. When he thought that she was getting comfortable, he told her to pick up the speed.

Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she raced down the street, hearing the Lost Boys egg her on and she smiled as she drove David's motorcycle. His hands squeezed hers and she could feel him smirking against her shoulder as he held onto her.

_I can't believe that I'm doing this! I'm driving for the first time in years and a motorcycle of all things! A motorcycle! David's motorcycle! And -!_

Her elated feeling cut short when she saw something standing in the darkened street. Her smile faded when she recognized the short figure and tears smarted in her eyes. Suddenly her chest felt tight and she couldn't breathe.

"David…" she whispered. "David, we – we need to stop. Now. Make it stop."

David's hands closed in tight over hers and somehow the motorcycle slowed to a stop. Samantha saw the Boys pull to a stop around her, looking towards her with concerned looks on their faces. Her body shook as the image of her hallucination faded, but she felt suddenly very sick.

"Samantha," David said softly, touching her shoulder.

"I'm going to be sick," Samantha said, lurching off of the motorcycle.

She ran blindly off of the street, a hand pressed to her mouth and stumbled down the sidewalk. The girl stopped next to some bushes and retched, emptying what little stomach contents that she had. Everything hurt and burned and she couldn't believe that she was doing this in front of her Boys.

Someone pulled her hair back as she retched again and a cool hand smoothed over her back, trying to calm her down. Samantha closed her eyes and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth after spitting out the last of the acid.

_I hate this so much_, she thought bitterly, straightening and feeling her hair fall back into place around her shoulders. _This stupid sickness that ruins everything for me and my best friends. I can't stand this and I know that it kills them to watch me do this all of the time._

"Are you okay, Sammy?" Dwayne asked as she turned around to look at David and the Boys.

"I'm going to be," she muttered, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a piece of gum. She looked up at David. "You're not going to be kissing me for the rest of the night after this little number."

David lifted an eyebrow at her. "You think a little puke is going to stop me from kissing you, Samantha? I've kissed you after you've eaten sushi."

Color flooded Samantha's cheeks. "There's nothing disgusting about sushi! But puke? There's something gross about that, David!"

David shook his head and looked over at his brothers. "She's obviously forgotten what we eat for a living, hasn't she?"

"She has," Paul agreed, nodding his wild blond head. "Shame on her."

"We must be too normal for her," Marko commented, smiling slightly.

Samantha rolled her eyes and chewed on her gum for a moment, trying to get rid of that horrible aftertaste of puke. She hadn't forgotten that the Boys were vampires, but she didn't like the idea that David could so easily kiss her after puking. It didn't seem right.

"Are you still feeling up to going to the boardwalk, Sammy?" Marko asked, watching her.

"Where else would I go?" Samantha asked, looking over at her Cherub-faced friend.

"To the hotel-cave," David said, putting his hands on her hips. "You haven't been there in a very long time, Samantha. And it might be better than going somewhere with all the noise. Especially since so much has been happening to you lately."

Samantha nodded and looked down at his chest. "It's probably for the best, I guess. But I am _not _driving there."

David chuckled and tapped his fingers against her hips. "I know. I will drive."

"But she was doing so good, Davie!" Paul laughed, bouncing on the balls of his feet again. "Do you think we could get her to do it again sometime?"

"Not tonight, Paul," Dwayne said, shaking his head.

"Well, duh. But sometime soon?" Paul looked around expectantly. "We could even get her a bike of her own! Wouldn't that be something? Sammy on her own motorcycle!"

Marko wolf-whistled at that.

David shook his head and pulled Samantha closer to him. "She's my riding partner, you fuckers. I don't want her on her own motorcycle."

"David," Samantha said softly, putting her hand on his chest. "You're getting snarly again. Chill."

David sighed and rested his chin on top her head. He shifted his face slightly and then pressed his lips against her hair.

"Are you ready to go, Samantha?" he asked, tapping his fingers against her hips again.

"Yeah."

"To the Batcave!" Paul declared, bounding back into the street.

"Home," Dwayne corrected, putting his hand in Samantha's when she offered it to him.

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha had only been to the Boys' hotel-cave a handful of times since she had known them, but that wasn't for their lack of trying. She had human needs that they just couldn't fit in that place, but they tried to make up for what they could. Now, she was back and she stumbled down the steps, eyeing the beautiful lobby as fire danced in large metal barrels around the space. David drew up beside her as Paul and Marko danced around the lobby, already singing loudly.

"I see you haven't changed anything," she commented, looking up at him. "You haven't taken down any of the girly pictures."

David smirked at her and tucked back a strand of her dark hair. "Do they really annoy you that much, Samantha? Or do they make you uncomfortable?"

"Yes."

David rolled his eyes. "Smartass."

"Asshole."

Samantha darted out of his arms before he could do anything and ran over to Paul and Marko. She grabbed onto Paul's hand and let him pull her into a dance. David let out a small growl and situated himself on his wheelchair-throne, watching them.

"Keep your hands where I can see them," he told his blond brothers. "And keep your dicks off of her. She's not yours to touch."

Marko waved him off as he danced closer to Samantha. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Davie. Blow it up your ass. Sammy's your girl. We hear ya. But she's our Sammy too and right now, she's dancing with us. Aren't you, Sammy?"

Samantha nodded and let him put his hand on her hip. "Yep. And later, I want to dance with you, Dwayne. Okay?"

"Sure, Sammy." Dwayne sat down on his usual perch at the fountain's edge. "Whatever you want."

Samantha danced with her blond best friends for a bit, thinking about things that she didn't want to think about. She couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if she hadn't been there with them in this moment. What would they be doing right then? Would they be sulking about? Would they be wreaking havoc on the town like some kind of bloodthirsty savages? Or would they be…gone?

"Davie," Paul said from in front of her as he danced with her, causing her to look up at him. "My Sammy's not smiling like she normally does. Are you sure we can't bump and grind on her like normal?"

David let out another growl. "I swear to God, Paul, if you lay one ball on her, I will kill you!"

Samantha glanced from Paul to David and got a weird idea in her head that she never got before. She put her hands on Paul's shoulders and then looked back at David. "Hey David," she said softly.

"What?" David asked, looking at her.

Samantha bumped her hips against Paul's and Paul laughed, jumping backwards and put some distance between the two of them. Marko let out a surprised laugh and danced back too as if afraid that Samantha would do the same thing to him. But she wouldn't.

"I didn't do that, Davie," Paul laughed, pointing at Samantha, who was smiling. "She did it all by herself. You saw it! I was a good boy for once!" He wagged his finger at Samantha, smiling wildly. "Naughty girl!"

Samantha lifted an eyebrow at David, who rose to his feet.

"Samantha," he growled as he advanced on her.

"Dwayne!" Samantha exclaimed, running away from David as he chased after her through the lobby. "Help me!"

She laughed breathlessly as she was suddenly swept up into a strong embrace and lifted into the air. Dwayne carried her up onto the ceiling and she hung upside down as he held her in his arms, cradling her against his chest. She laughed against his chest and then looked down at David as the leader of the Lost Boys glared up at her and his dark-haired brother. She childishly stuck her tongue out at him and patted Dwayne on the chest, feeling her heart thud in her throat.

"Samantha," David called out to her, putting his hands on his hips.

"David," Samantha called back when she could regain her breath.

"Get back down here," he ordered. "You're afraid of heights."

"I'm not," Samantha told him, shaking her head. "I just don't like them much. That's all." She frowned at him. "Besides, you're mad at me for thrusting my hips into Paul's. And not yours."

David shook his head. "I'm not mad, Samantha."

"Promise?"

"Yes."

Dwayne looked at her, his earring dangling the wrong way. "He's not lying, Sammy."

"Okay."

"Close your eyes, Sammy," Dwayne ordered softly, tightening his grip on her slightly. "Just for a moment."

Samantha closed her eyes as instructed and felt the world shift around her. Solid ground hit her feet and Dwayne shifted her out of his arms and she opened her eyes. She blinked and looked up at him as he backed away, smiling at her. Samantha smiled back before realizing that someone was coming up behind her.

"David," she muttered, feeling his hands slide around her waist. "Are you sure you're not mad at me for touching Paul like that? I was just fooling around."

David sighed and pressed a quick kiss to her neck. "I'm not mad, Samantha. Shocked, but not mad. You've never been so bold as that." He chuckled and tapped his fingers against her stomach. "Maybe we are rubbing off on you a bit."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "That'd be the day." She rubbed at her throat and sighed. "I'm thirsty, David. And not for alcohol, so don't offer."

"We have water for you, Sammy," Marko said as Paul fiddled with his rock-box for some more music. "From last time."

"Thanks," Samantha said, smiling slightly. Her eyes turned back to Dwayne as he sat back down at the fountain. "I'm going to dance with you after I've had some water, Dwayne." She slid a hand over David's. "And then I'm going to dance with you, David. But not like we danced the first time. That still makes me feel weird."

David shook his head and parted from her. "You're going to have to get used to being touched like that, Samantha. We're together now and things are going to happen between us. We are going to touch and we are going to explore."

Samantha felt heat rise up in her cheeks and flood through her body at his words. "David!"

David smirked as he sat down on his wheelchair throne. "Samantha."

"You are an asshole."

"I've noticed." He patted his lap. "Come here, Lost Girl."

"And if I refuse?" Samantha asked stubbornly.

"I'll chase you down again," David told her, his ice blue eyes flashing. "Pin you against a wall and kiss you senseless while the Boys watch."

Samantha glanced at Paul and Marko and saw that they were both smiling wickedly. "You're playing dirty, David."

"I know."

Samantha walked over to him and sat down on his lap, feeling strange doing so. He slid an arm around her and drew her closer to him, sliding his naked fingertips under the back of her tank top so that they touched the small of her back. His other hand rested on her thigh and he tilted his face up to look at her.

"Was that so hard?" he asked, watching her face as she draped an arm around his shoulders.

"No," Samantha said, shaking her head. "It just feels a little strange, being so new to me, David." She crossed her legs at the ankles and rested them over the arm of his chair. "But I might get used to it eventually."

Marko popped over to them and held out a bottle of water. "My Sammy," he said, bowing his head slightly.

"Thank you, honey," Samantha said, taking the bottle from him and opening it.

Marko danced back over to Paul's side and started bouncing around, getting lost in the music. Samantha took a few sips of water before sealing it again. She didn't want to consume too much in this place because she knew that there would be consequences and the Boys didn't have the right requirements to handle it. David tapped his fingers against her thigh to get her attention.

"Do you want to stay here tonight, Samantha?" he asked, looking at her.

"Here?" Samantha lifted an eyebrow. "David, I need my medications at night and in the morning. I can't just skip them. You know that."

"We could get them for you, Sammy," Paul said, listening to the conversation. "We know exactly where they are. And we could call it a sleepover. And take good care of you all day. Then party all night before taking you back home tomorrow."

"I don't know, Paul."

"Please Sammy!" Paul begged, bouncing on his feet. "Please!"

Marko joined in too. "Please Sammy! Please, please, please!"

Samantha looked over at Dwayne and saw that even he was pouting at her. She quickly looked away from him and back at David. His eyes were intense as he stared at her.

"You're not going to take no for an answer, are you, David?" she asked quietly.

"Not tonight, Samantha," David told her with a smirk. "I want you to stay here with me and the Boys for one night. So we can keep an eye on you and hold you close." He squeezed her as he said that and Samantha made a small sound at the back of her throat. "So, are you staying or are we going to have to pester you some more about it until you give in?"

Samantha sighed. _Damn you, David! _"I guess I'm staying for the day."

"Yay Sammy!" Paul sang, flying into the air and bouncing off of the walls.

"Go get her fucking pills, Paul, Marko," David ordered, watching him. "And make sure that her parents don't see you two."

"Right," Marko said, backing towards the entrance to the hotel-cave. "Keep the noise to a minimal and be sneaky."

"Super sneaky," Paul agreed, wiggling his fingers. "Be back as soon as we can, my Sammy!"

Samantha watched her blond Boys dart off into the night and then looked back at David. He stared into her eyes for a moment before brushing his lips lightly against hers. Samantha pulled back away from him, startled.

"What did I tell you about kissing me?" she demanded with a frown.

"I'm ignoring that," David told her, leaning forward again. "You don't taste like puke anymore, Samantha. So, relax."

Samantha let him kiss her again and he was soft at first like when they would kiss goodnight before parting, but he took it a bit deeper. Samantha felt his tongue slip into her mouth and stroke hers and then she made a small noise and pulled back, breathless.

"You need to behave," she muttered, frowning at him as she continued to play with his hair.

"Make me," David shot back with a challenging smirk.

Samantha realized something. "My gum's missing."

David opened his mouth, revealing the mint gum on his tongue. "No, it's not."

The girl smacked him on the chest. "David!"

"You want it back, Samantha?" He offered it on the tip of his tongue.

"No."

The leader of the Lost Boys pulled his tongue back into his mouth and chewed on the gum. "You're a chicken."

Samantha pointed over at Dwayne, who lifted an eyebrow. "I will go sit over with Dwayne, if you don't cut it out, David."

David let out a small growl and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her ever closer. "You're mine!"

His girlfriend smiled smugly and put her hand back in his hair, stroking it. "That's what I thought, Mister."

David relaxed under her touch and rested his face against her neck. Samantha felt his lips touch her neck and then he was kissing her there. Her eyes widened at the new contact and her hand stilled on his hair as he moved his lips and then his tongue over her soft flesh. She could feel her heart start to race in her chest.

"David…" she whispered, feeling strange sensations through her body, mixing with fear.

"Mm…relax, Samantha," David said against her skin. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Samantha tried to relax like he wanted and she knew that she wanted to too because she wanted to be with David like a boyfriend and girlfriend should, but she was still a bit scared. Her hand gripped at his hair and she felt her heart beat faster as he kissed her more, his hand sliding farther up her back, stroking her skin.

"David, I think she's getting scared," Dwayne said, watching the two of them from where he sat at the fountain's edge. "I can hear her heart from here. And it's not the racing of excitement…"

David slowly lifted his lips away from Samantha's neck and looked into her eyes. She looked away, feeling guilty for not letting him continue to touch her like he wanted. Part of her hated herself for being so scared, so uncomfortable in her own skin around boys. Around her David.

"Samantha," David said, touching her face with one hand and turning it so that he could look her in the eye. "It's okay. I know what happened to you when you were little –"

"Almost," Samantha corrected before she could stop herself. "Almost, David."

"And I'm not going to rush you into anything," David continued. "But I want you to know that I'm not going to stop trying to break down that barrier between us." He ran his hand over her back, this time over her clothes. "I want you to be comfortable with me, Samantha. Because I do love you and I want you to be mine, fully. Every inch of you."

Samantha shook her head. "There's a lot of baggage that comes with me, David."

"I knew that when we met," David told her. "That didn't stop me then and it's never going to stop me in the future."

"Good to know," Samantha said, leaning forward to press a quick kiss to his lips. She handed him her water bottle. "Dwayne, I need to dance with you now."

The girl quickly climbed off of David's lap and walked over to Dwayne as the dark-haired Lost Boy rose to his feet. She had never quite gotten used to the fact that all of the Boys were so much taller than her. Well, Marko didn't tower over her by much, but still, it made her feel so small as she placed her hand on Dwayne's shoulder and placed her other hand in his.

"I don't like being short," she confided in him as they danced to a new song on Paul's rock box. "It's not great when I have to be around you Boys and other tall people."

Dwayne laughed softly and squeezed her hip. "There's nothing wrong with your height, Sammy. We like you for you. And being that height is perfect. It makes it easier for us to put our heads upon yours. It's nice."

"It's awkward," Samantha corrected.

"Nice," Dwayne argued. His dark eyes challenged hers. "You won't win this argument, Sammy. I like having you this height. I like having you smiling and dancing with me. I like having you around and not hiding away from the world because of something that your sister said to you."

Samantha ducked her head and stared at his naked chest.

"Why do you even listen to her in the first place, Sammy?" Dwayne asked. "If she's such a horrible person in your life, why don't you ignore her?"

"I don't know, Dwayne. I try and I try, but she pops up in my messages and I have to find some way to get rid of that annoying red bubble." Samantha squeezed his shoulder with her fingertips. "I have to ignore her messages though. I promised Felicia that I would. I promised Emily and my brother-in-law and so many other people."

"Promise me now," Dwayne ordered. "Promise me that you'll ignore her whenever she comes online. Because I don't want her to upset you like that again, Sammy. If she takes you away from us, I'm going to kill her. For everything that she's ever done to you."

Samantha lifted her eyes to his and nodded. "I promise Dwayne. I'm going to try."

Dwayne tilted his head to the side as he twirled her out and back into his body. "You know that you're safe here with me and David and the others, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Say it then, Sammy."

"I'm safe," Samantha whispered.

"Louder."

"I'm safe."

"A little louder," Dwayne ordered as Paul and Marko came running into the cave, a bag slung over Marko's shoulder.

"I'm safe," Samantha said a bit louder.

Dwayne shook his head. "I want you to say it louder than that, Sammy."

"No."

The dark-haired Lost Boy whistled to get the attention of his blond brothers. "Paul, Marko. A little help."

Marko dropped the bag and rushed over with Paul. Paul and Marko immediately began tugging at her hair and bouncing around her.

"Come on, Sammy!" Paul laughed, tapping her on the shoulder. "Say it! Shout it for the world to hear!"  
"Shout 'I'm Safe'!" Marko ordered, tugging at her hair lightly. "Shout it! Shout it!"

Samantha resisted and stared stubbornly at Dwayne's naked chest as her best friends urged her to shout out the words.

"Don't make us try to find a ticklish spot on you, Samantha," David threatened from his perch on his wheelchair-throne. "Because we'll make one on you and then you'll scream those words just to make us stop."

"You're really playing dirty tonight," Samantha whispered, lifting her eyes to meet Dwayne's eyes. "Fine. I'll say it."

"Shout it," Dwayne corrected with a small smile.

Samantha wet her lips with the tip of her tongue and closed her eyes. She really didn't want to do this in a cave of vampires with super sensitive hearing, but they weren't giving her much choice.

"I'm safe!" she shouted, her voice echoing off the walls.

Paul and Marko cheered, high-fiving behind her and tugged on her hair one more time. Samantha opened her eyes and glared up at Dwayne as he began to dance with her again.

"Are you happy now?" she asked, her throat hurting slightly.

"Are you?" he shot back. "Because that's all we want for you, Sammy."

Samantha nodded. "I'm happy. Just being with you Boys."

"Good." He pressed his lips against her forehead as the dance ended a few minutes later. "Thanks for dancing with me, Sammy."

"Any time, Dwayne."

Samantha watched him walk off to his fountain seat and Paul flared up a joint that he would never share with her in a million years. David's orders. Marko plopped down on a couch and bit down on his thumbnail, hiding his smile behind it.

"Samantha," David said from his wheelchair-throne.

The girl turned and looked at him, finding him staring at her. She stared back, determined not to be the first one to blink this time. But vampires were great at staring contests and she was only human.

"Dammit!" Samantha cursed, rubbing at her left eye.

David smirked and rose to his feet, suddenly standing in front of her. Samantha wasn't too startled by the action. Sometimes the Boys did that to her, but not often. They didn't like to use many of their powers on her.

"Are you ready to dance with your favorite asshole?" David asked, looking down at her with his intense ice blue eyes.

Samantha nodded and smiled. "Paul, new song, please."

Paul flipped through the stations on his rock-box and settled back on his abused couch, taking a drag on his joint. "There you go, my Sammy," he said lazily.

Samantha felt David's hands slide down her arms and grip her wrists. Her breath hitched at the action, but she remained silent as he slowly lifted her hands until they rested on his shoulders.

"Relax Samantha," he told her softly, placing his hands at her waist. "We're not going to do anything rocky. Just trust me."

"I trust you," Samantha whispered, staring up into his eyes, captivated.

David moved them into a slow dance, unlike their first dance which had stirred strange feelings in Samantha that she hadn't been prepared for. Doing things with David still made her feel strange, but she was getting used to that. She liked being with him. He did make her feel safe rather like Dwayne did, but Dwayne was more of a big brother. David was her boyfriend and she loved him. And he loved her and had done so apparently for a lot longer than she had known about.

"We're going to have to send you to bed soon," David told her after several minutes of dancing in silence. "There's a room that we have fixed up for you and you can sleep in there."

"Alone?" Samantha asked.

"Only if you want to."

Samantha shook her head and shifted one of her hands so that it pressed against his neck. "You're staying with me, David. Please. This is new to me. Well, sleeping in the same bed with a man is new to me too, but sleeping in this place is new to me too. So please, will you stay with me?"

David nodded and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll stay with you, Samantha."

OOOOOOOOOO

Samantha was led to a room where she could change into her nightclothes once more and then stepped back out into the lobby once she had taken her pills for the night. Paul and Marko were waiting for her and pounced on her when she crossed into the room. Samantha let herself get crushed in between her two favorite blonds.

"We love you, Sammy," Marko said against her hair, pressing a kiss behind her ear. "And we're so glad that you're staying with us right now. Don't be surprised if we come in after sunset and start a pillow fight with you!"

Samantha hugged him with one arm. "You'd better not, Marko! I have a bad case of bedhead and crankiness when I wake up. But I love you too." She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before looking over at Paul. "And you…"

Paul laughed and pressed a quick kiss to her temple since now he knew that kissing her anywhere near her lips was forbidden. "I'm so proud of you, my Sammy. You're riding motorcycles like a true Lost Girl and grinding on people…You're making me so proud! I love you so much!"

"Uh-huh," Samantha hugged him with her other arm and kissed him on his cheek. "I love you too, Paul. But watch yourself. I'm not against kicking your cute little butt."

"It's sexy," Paul corrected, tossing his wild blond mane of hair as he danced back. "Remember that my Sammy! Everything me is drop dead sexy!"

Marko waved his finger in circles around his forehead at Samantha and she nodded before letting him go. She watched him dart off after Paul, smacking his brother on the chest to get him running with him. Her green eyes turned to Dwayne as he stretched on the fountain, watching her.

"Do I get a hug?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

Dwayne stood up and appeared before her, wrapping his arms around her. Samantha pressed her cheek against his naked chest and breathed in his warm scent. Dwayne smoothed a hand over her back and one through her hair.

"I love you, Dwayne," she whispered, staring into the flames of a metal barrel nearby. "Thank you for keeping me safe and for promising to be there for me whenever I need you. You're like a big brother to me just like my brother-in-law. I wish that I had known you sooner. Maybe I would have been a lot happier back then, but that doesn't matter." She held onto him tighter. "I have you now and I love you so much."

Dwayne squeezed her and pressed his lips to the top of her head. "I love you, Sammy. And I will always do so. You're my favorite Sister and my only one. When you become one of us, truly one of us, I'm going to be there to help you through every step of the way. We all are. Especially me and David. We've got your back, Sammy. From the day that we met until the End of the End."

He held onto her for several more moments before slowly releasing her. Samantha looked up at him and he offered her a smile, brushing back that strand of hair that seemed to like to fall in her face. Samantha patted him on the chest and then looked around for David.

The leader of the Lost Boys was climbing down the steps at the entrance to the hotel-cave, looking like he had just finished his last cigarette of the night. His ice blue eyes found hers and Samantha turned away from him, wiggling her fingers behind her back. David was behind her in an instant and had his hand around hers.

"See you both at sunset," Dwayne called after them as Samantha led the now familiar track back to the room that she'd been given for her stays here with the Boys.

Samantha let go of David's hand and wandered over to the bed, pulling back the thick blankets and sank down onto the bed, but didn't lay down. David shut the door and started peeling off his jackets while Samantha watched, fiddling with her hair. She watched him lift off his black muscle shirt, revealing his powerful chest and traced his muscles with her eyes. She quickly looked away when he caught her staring.

"You know you can look at me, Samantha," David told her, tossing the shirt aside as he approached the bed. "I am your boyfriend. And this is all yours."

Samantha looked back at him, but focused on his face instead of his body. "I just don't think it's polite to ogle at someone's body," she said simply. "Even one as perfect as yours."

David sank down onto the bed next to her and relaxed against the pillows, propping his head on his hand. He offered her his arm and she kicked her legs under the blankets before settling next to him, wrapping her arm around his naked waist. She nuzzled her face against his chest as he ran his hand over her back, snaking his fingers under her shirt, but she didn't protest this time.

"I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I?" he asked her as she breathed in slowly.

"No, you're being nice," Samantha told him, listening to his very slow heartbeat. "I like moments like these with you, David. Sweet moments. They're new to me, but enjoyable." She smiled slightly. "One day, we might get to do more things like you want. Like with the fuzzy handcuffs."

David chuckled. "That'll be the day." He stroked lazy circles against her skin. "I'll go easy on you then, Samantha. Because I don't want to scare you."

"You don't scare me, David." She shivered. "New experiences scare me. This sickness scares me, but I'm not going to let it stop me from being with you or doing things with you. Because that's not fair to you."

David was silent, still tracing designs on her skin.

Samantha lifted her face away from his chest and saw that he was looking at the ceiling. "David, look at me. Please."

Her Lost Boy looked at her and Samantha pushed herself up a little until she could comfortably reach his face. She brushed her lips against his tenderly at first, testing herself more than she was testing him. And then she put more pressure on his lips, on herself. She took the kiss deeper than she would have normally let herself and felt David respond to her. His hand pressed flat against the small of her back and drew her closer to him as he shifted his body slightly and Samantha pressed herself closer to him, kissing him like she hadn't before.

David's eyes were slightly hooded when Samantha pulled back several moments later to breathe and Samantha bit her bottom lip, slipping slightly down his body. Heat flooded her cheeks as she realized what she had done. But it felt good. Liberating, even.

"I want to do that again, some other time," Samantha told him when she could look at him again and she found him grinning slightly at her. She poked him in the chest. "But I want you to initiate it like usual."

"Why?" David asked, lifting an eyebrow at her. "You did a good job right there, Samantha. I'm enjoying this new confidence in you tonight." He leaned into her. "Maybe I'll get to those handcuffs sooner than I thought."

Samantha laughed and pushed him back. "Not on your life, David."

David smirked and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Come on, it's time for you to get some sleep. I can already see those drugs working on you, Samantha. Just promise me that you won't wake up in the middle of the day and scream if you see my face and it's in vampire mode. I don't want to give you nightmares."

Samantha touched his face with her fingertips, tracing his cheekbones. "It's going to be my face one day, David," she reminded him. "I'm going to have to get used to it."

David nipped at her fingertips and then pulled her down against the pillows. "Not quite yet, Samantha. We've still got some planning to do before you become one of us all the way." He pulled her close to him so that her chest was against his. "Now close your eyes and breathe. I'm going to be right here." He pressed a kiss to her forehead again. "I love you, Samantha."

"I love you too, David," Samantha whispered, closing her eyes as she breathed in his familiar scent and felt the pull of her drugs on her system.

Samantha fell asleep feeling happy for the first time in over a week, knowing that she was safe in a hotel-cave of vampires that were never, ever going to let her go. Because she was theirs and they were hers.

**OOOOOOOOO**

**A/N: And that's that. What did you think? There's a lot of kissing and depressing thoughts in here, isn't there? Well, that's what happens when you get in a funk and want romance and don't have a boyfriend to help you. So, you get David to do it for you. Please let me know what you think. I crave reviews. Like literally. I have tons of stories on here and several have no reviews. But I don't know if Theirs is getting anymore chapters after this. This was just a healing thing for me basically. Getting the negativity out, you know? Well, that's that. Let me know what you think, my lovelies. And I thank you mightily for giving this a look. Much love! -Scarlet**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello my lovelies! I have decided that this is no longer just a one-shot, two-shot, three-shot thing. This is a multiple chapter thingy. Still sort of disconnected, but a story nonetheless. There is a prequel to it, "Becoming Theirs" that I may not have reminded you of, but that was my bad. I wrote that before the second chapter of this one, but after the first one, oops. Thank you for the kind support that I've been getting for this one. This contains the beginnings of something that I have never experienced and something that happened a few weeks ago, so I'm good now. Don't worry. We're doing fine here. Enjoy!**

**OOOOOOOOO**

Samantha was standing in the kitchen to her house, staring into the refrigerator when she heard someone knock on her door. She sighed and closed the door, wishing that she could have just one break. One stinking break! The girl walked over to the door and pulled it open, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw David standing there, leaning casually against the doorjamb. His blue eyes glittered as they took in her rumpled work uniform which she still hadn't changed out of.

"David!" Samantha exclaimed, stepping back. "What – what are you doing here?" She glanced at the clock over the stove. "Shouldn't you be on the boardwalk with the others? Waiting for me to show up or something?"

David shook his head and stepped into the kitchen, closing the door. "I've already hunted and decided to come see you, Samantha. Just me and you for a bit." He glanced her over. "You look like you've been through Hell."

"Gee, what a nice boyfriend," Samantha mumbled, smoothing a hand through her hair in an attempt to tame it. "I haven't had a chance to change yet. Not out of these prison clothes. So, forgive me for looking like a nightmare."

David put his hands on her hips and pulled her close to him. "I still think you're beautiful, Samantha. Just a bit tired." He pressed his lips to hers in a soft kiss. "Should we get you out of those _prison clothes_ and into something more comfortable?"

"Let me guess," Samantha said, tapping her fingers against his chest. "It's date night for me and you and you'd like to pick out my clothes?"

David smirked at her. "Duh."

Samantha rolled her green eyes and parted from him. "You have some serious issues when it comes to stepping into my closet, David. You just can't keep your hands off of my clothes."

"I could always just tear them off of you," David told her, following her out of the kitchen and up the stairs. "Then we wouldn't have to worry about clothes at all."

The brunette shook her head and moved faster down the hall, hearing her sisters dart into their rooms as they did whenever company came over. "I seriously did not hear you say that."

"Should I repeat it then?" David teased, keeping up with easily. "Because I can do that and more, Samantha. I can get you so red in the face and worked up."

Samantha wheeled around at the entrance to her room and poked him in the chest. "Do not try it, David. I am not letting you get away with that in my parents' house."

"Then get dressed and let's go somewhere else," David told her, pushing her into her room and closing the door. "And I'll talk as dirty there as I want and you can do whatever you want with me then, Samantha." His blue eyes gleamed. "_Whatever_ you want."

Samantha shivered as his hand slid along her face and she tried to glare at him. "You are an asshole, David."

David chuckled and pressed his lips to her forehead. "I know, but you love me for it." He glanced in the direction of her closet. "So, are we getting you out of those clothes or not?"

Samantha nodded. "I feel gross in these things, but I don't feel like I should take a shower at the moment."

David's nostrils flared slightly. "You smell like vanilla to me, Samantha. Did you spray something on yourself?"

"Got attacked by someone at work," Samantha admitted, shrugging a shoulder. "You know I don't wear icky perfume or anything. I wouldn't want to kill you or the Boys' noses with sensory overload."

David smirked and slipped past her, heading straight for her closet. Samantha grumbled under her breath as she followed her boyfriend into her closet and saw him start sifting through her rack of clothes. She sighed and leaned against the wall, watching him. He pulled off a pair of black denim leggings and a white tank top and presented them to her.

"Here," he said, handing them over. "You can wear these tonight."

"But I'm wearing the wrong color bra," Samantha said, showing him the strap of the one that she was wearing under her work shirt: black. "It's going to show under the white tank top and I am not letting that happen."

David rolled his eyes and moved over to her dresser. "Fine, I'll find you a bra to wear."

Samantha had been looking down at the clothes in her hand when she heard him say that. _Uh-oh. Second drawer. Forbidden one._ She lifted her eyes and saw him poking around in there and noticed the slow smirk on his face as he noticed something that she'd tucked in there. Samantha dropped her clothes and darted over to her dresser, pushing him away from it and snapped the drawer shut. She glared up at him and pointed towards the door.

"Out," she ordered.

"Samantha," David said in a low voice, his eyes gleaming. "When did you get _that_?"

"None of your business," Samantha snapped, pointing with more force. "Out, now."

David pressed in closer to her, caging her against her dresser. "Were you actually experimenting with things, Samantha? Preparing for something? For little old David?"

Samantha felt heat in her cheeks. "Please just get out of this closet, David. Let me change and…Just get out."

David smirked and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before walking out, humming to himself. Samantha walked over to the door and snapped it shut, leaning against it for a moment. She cursed herself under her breath and closed her eyes, hating what she had let him see. Her eyes opened again and she bent to pick up her clothes. Samantha changed quickly and put on her leather jacket before slipping on a pair of boots, a pair of earrings that resembled Dwayne's but shorter, and her rings. She pulled her hair into a fresh ponytail before facing the closet door.

_Time to face him_, Samantha thought, putting her hand on the doorknob. She took a deep breath. _I can do this._

Samantha walked out of her closet and saw David sitting on her desk chair, watching her closet door like he had been waiting for her in anticipation. Samantha put her hands on her hips and glared at him, finally succeeding in doing so. David smirked at her and beckoned her forward with one finger.

"Come here, little Lost Girl," he purred. "I won't bite."

The girl rolled her eyes and moved a bit closer, keeping her hands on her hips. "David, I did _not_ want you in that drawer. Ever. Especially after I put that thing in there."

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Samantha," David said, reaching out a hand and grabbing the front of her tank top, pulling her closer. "It just means that you're getting a bit bolder with yourself…Experimenting with things, with your body, for once." He looked up into her eyes. "You like it?"

"Do I have to answer that?" Samantha asked, frowning at him.

David chuckled and traced his thumb over her bottom lip. "I think I have my answer." He sighed. "I have a feeling that you're still not ready for me to touch you though."

"I haven't thought about it," Samantha told him, putting her hand against the back of his neck. "But I do have thoughts of us when I have that thing in my hand."

"Oh really?" David's eyes held hers. "Care to share, Samantha?"

"No." Samantha glanced away from him. "Can we get going? I want to get out of this house for a while. And you promised me some alone time with you, David. I expect some quality time with my favorite asshole."

David pushed himself to his feet and brushed back a stubborn strand of hair that fell in Samantha's face. "Let's get going then. I want to take you back to the cave and spend time with you there where the Boys won't bother us."

"Fine," Samantha said, grabbing his hand and pulling her towards her bedroom door. "But let's just get out of here before Mom and Dad try to say something about this. And not a word about what you've found."

"Fine," David echoed, following her out of her room.

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha twirled around out of David's arms and let him spin her back in, laughing as she did so. She wasn't used to this kind of dancing, but she was willing to learn for the sake of spending time with her boyfriend. David had danced with her only a handful of times, but now he was doing it as much as he could with the Boys out of the cave and he had a playful smirk on his face as he danced with Samantha around the lobby of the cave.

"Okay, okay," Samantha laughed as she crashed into David's body. "You are seriously getting me dizzy now."

"Maybe that's my goal, Samantha," David said, looking down into her eyes as he danced with her. "Get you very, very dizzy and then make out with you on the nearest couch while you're disoriented."

Samantha stuck her tongue out at him and he snapped his teeth at her, making her draw her tongue in rather quickly. She hated it when he did that. The other Boys could do it, but not him. She smacked him on the chest and danced back out of his arms.

"I need a breather," Samantha told him, plopping down on one of the abused couches. "A little time out."

David moved over to the couch and sank down on it next to her. He slid his arm around her and drew her to his side, sliding his hand under her jacket and teased her side through the fabric of her tank top. Samantha sighed softly and rested her cheek against his shoulder, looking at one of the metal barrels that was full of fire.

"This is strange," she commented quietly.

"What's strange?" David asked, rubbing circles on her side with his thumb. "Being with me?"

"No. Okay, it is a bit strange, but that's not what I find that strangest." Samantha glanced around them. "I'm not used to this place being so quiet. Usually when I'm here, it's so full of noise that my head hurts a bit. With Paul and Marko being almost as loud as the Voices…" She sighed and closed her eyes. "I seriously don't know how you could put up with me and them at the same time, David."

"Easy. I've been with them for so long and I love you, Samantha." He pressed his lips to her temple. "And nothing is going to change that."

Samantha glanced up at him and tilted her face up. "You want to rethink that?"

"No." He rested his forehead against hers. "I'm keeping you forever, Samantha. That was my promise when I told you that I loved you, little Lost Girl, and you know that I never break my promises to you."

Samantha smiled and shifted her position slightly, lifting herself up so that she could kiss him. David pressed his hand against the small of her back and pulled her closer to him as he kissed her softly. But Samantha surprised herself by letting him take the kiss deeper and deeper until her head swam. David parted from her to let her breathe and then kissed her quickly again. Just a light peck.

"You are seriously driving me crazy, Samantha," David told her softly, resting his forehead again. "But in a good way."

Samantha closed her eyes and breathed in slowly. "Do you still want to touch me, David? Like everywhere?"

David shifted his grip on her. "Yeah, but only when you're ready, Samantha."

Samantha took a deep breath and opened her eyes a bit. "What if I am? Right now?"

David pulled his face away from hers and looked at her, hard. "Samantha…are you sure? Because I don't want to rush you…I mean, I want to touch you, but I know what happened to you – almost happened – when you were a kid. And if I start to touch you, I'm probably not going to be able to stop."

Samantha opened her eyes all the way and looked at him. "And what if I don't want to you to stop? What if I think that I am ready for this kind of thing? What if I am ready for you and me to be together-together?"

David grinned and stood up slowly, offering her his hand. "Then I'm not going to stop you, Samantha."

Samantha took his hand and let him pull her up to her feet. She swung their hands between them as they walked through the lobby and down a tunnel to the room that she now occasionally stayed in whenever the Boys asked her to stay over with them. Her parents never seemed bothered by it because she was an adult and could make her own decisions. It got her out of the house and that's all that mattered.

David shed his jackets after closing the door and turned to her. Samantha shrugged out of her jacket and played with her hair, feeling suddenly nervous about this whole thing. David cupped her face between his hands and looked down at her.

"We don't have to do this," he told her softly.

"But I want to do this," Samantha whispered, looking into his piercing blue eyes. "Please…"

David nodded and lowered his face towards hers, kissing her softly at first, but he soon took the kiss deeper and deeper. Samantha wrapped her hands around him and pressed herself closer to him as he kissed her, letting herself give into the strange feelings that were flooding through her. David's tongue entered her mouth and Samantha felt weird letting his dance with hers, but she didn't stop him. She was surprised by the sound that came from deep in her throat: a soft moan. And David smiled against her lips as he kissed her again.

David backed her slowly towards the big bed, plucking the hairband out of her hair and raking his fingers through her brown locks as he kissed her. His hands peeled away layers of clothes and touched skin that had never been seen by anyone but Samantha, causing Samantha to want to hide from him in embarrassment, but David was patient. He gently tugged her hands away and caressed her flesh, sending shivers through her body as he kissed her in places that left Samantha breathless. David laid her down on the bed and climbed over her, kissing her on the lips again before lowering his face to her neck and then lower still. Samantha didn't know what to make of herself, she was just lost in the moment as David treated her to new sensations that left her panting and squirming under him and he lifted himself over her after sliding out of his jeans.

"This is going to hurt for a bit," he warned, touching her face with a light hand. "I wish it didn't have to…not after what I promised you, but it does."

Samantha gasped as he joined their bodies and she felt tears sting her eyes. But David was slow and as gentle as he could be with her in her first time. David kissed her as he moved against her and Samantha closed her eyes as she turned her face away and breathed heavily as she felt a new sensation stir through her body…

OOOOOOOOO

"Okay, ow," Samantha muttered, laying against David's chest after everything had settled down again. "That hurt a lot more than I thought it would…and I'm feeling things down there that I didn't think I would feel come out."

David chuckled and ran his hand against the bare skin of her back. "I told you that it would hurt, Samantha, and you know very well what all of that shit is that is coming out of you down there."

Samantha grumbled under her breath. "I feel a pain in my breast too." She lifted the blanket that he'd drawn over them and let out a small sound. "There's a freaking bruise there, David!"

David let out a real laugh this time. "I bit you, Samantha, remember? Well, kind of bit and sucked on that part of you. It's called a –"

"I know what it's called, asshole," Samantha said, looking at the bruise on her breast. "I just didn't think that you'd give me one there." She noticed him peeking under the blanket too and slapped it down back. "You're not supposed to look at it!"

The leader of the Lost Boys lifted an eyebrow at her. "Why not? I'm the one that left it there, Samantha. I've seen them. I've kissed them, tasted them…Why can't I look at them?"

"Because I said so," Samantha told him, keeping her arms firmly pressed over the blanket like she thought that he was going to lift it again. "I have body image issues that I have to work on and having sex still doesn't help it."

"Well, I love your body," David said, kissing her cheek. "Every inch of it and I'll keep on proving it to you, every chance I get." He glanced into her eyes. "Did you look at me when I was touching you?"

Samantha shook her head. "Nope."

"For the love of God, Samantha!" David rolled his eyes Heavenward. "You know you can look at me. I'm not embarrassed about my body." He gripped the blanket and tugged it off of him. Samantha quickly averted her gaze away from his naked body and lifted it to the ceiling. "Just take a look, Samantha."

"I don't want to," Samantha said stubbornly, keeping her gaze fixated on the ceiling.

"I'm not asking you to touch it, yet. I'm just asking you to look at me."

"Well, I don't want to look at you," Samantha grumbled, closing her eyes. "And I don't want to put my hand on it either. So, don't you ever ask me to."

David sighed and rolled over onto his side so that he was resting on his elbow. Samantha made a small sound in the back of her throat as she realized that something was brushing against her blanket covered hip.

"You are being really stubborn for a girl that just got a lot of stress relief," David told her in a gentle growl. "And you've been really moody. Serious mood swings lately, Samantha. You want to tell me what the hell is up now?"

"I'm fine," Samantha said softly, opening her eyes again. "I just have a bad case of mood swings. That's it." She turned her head slightly to look at his face. "Can I get dressed now? But with your back turned, David…because I don't feel completely comfortable still with this whole naked, exposed thing."

David shook his head and dropped down onto his back, pressing a hand over his eyes. "Fuck Samantha! You are killing me here with this shyness!" He waved his other hand. "Just get dressed, fast."

Samantha slid out of the bed and moved around the room, picking up her clothes and sliding them onto her body. She turned when she was fully dressed and saw that David was looking at her.

"Were you looking at me the entire time?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yes," David said with a smirk, putting his hand behind his head.

"David!" Samantha growled, advancing on the bed and her vampire boyfriend.

David laughed and rolled off of the bed, standing. "I can't help it, Samantha. I'm going to look now that I've seen you." He pressed his hands on the mattress and smirked at her as she glared at him from across the bed. "I want you to be confident in your body like I love you for it."

Samantha frowned into his eyes. "Get dressed right now and take me for some food. I'm hungry."

"What if I want to keep you here and take your clothes off again?" David asked, swiping his tongue over his lips. "I have the night with you."

"I feel gross and icky and I hurt down there, thanks to you," Samantha told him. "Now get dressed and take me out."

David sighed and pushed himself away from the bed. "Fine. I'll get dressed and get you food."

Samantha glanced away from David as he started rooting around the room for his clothes. She tugged at her hair, trying to figure out how she was going to tame it after everything that David had done to it. The last thing she needed was for anyone to figure out what she had been doing with the leader of the Lost Boys.

"Were the Boys in your head at all when we were together?" Samantha asked, rooting around her pockets in search for a hairband.

"No," David told her, zipping his jeans back up. "It's just been you and me since the moment we stepped in the cave."

"Oh." Samantha finally looked at him. "Thanks for that." She started to twist her hair up into a knot and heard him growl. "What the hell is your problem now?"

"Don't put your hair up," David ordered, glaring at her. "You know the Boys and I hate it when you do that."

Samantha sighed and let her hair drop around her shoulders. "I still don't get why I can't do what I want with my hair."

David shook his head and circled around the bed, advancing on her. Samantha crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at him as he settled his hands on her hips, drawing her to him.

"You are beautiful," David told her softly. "But we prefer you with your hair down. Just so we can play with it." He lifted his hand and touched her hair. "And run our fingers through it."

Samantha shivered. "David…"

"We love you, Samantha." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too," Samantha whispered, closing her eyes against an unexpected wave of tears.

"Hey," David said gently, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer to him. "Samantha, are you okay?"

"I don't know," Samantha admitted, shaking her head as she pressed her face against his still naked chest. "I really don't know." She sighed. "Can we please just go to the boardwalk now, David? Please? I want to go out with you and just be somewhere happy…With you and the Boys?"

David smoothed his hand against her back and nodded. "Anything you want, you'll get, Samantha."

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha tossed her walking taco bag into the nearest trashcan and sighed, feeling a bit better than she did before she had come to the boardwalk. David stood beside her, quietly smoking his cigarette as they stood at a railing, staring out at the darkened ocean. Samantha bumped her elbow against his and laughed when he bumped his back against hers.

"I'll fight you," she warned, giving him a look.

David smirked at her as he plucked his cigarette from between his lips. "And I'll just pin you down and kiss you senseless, how about that, Samantha?"

Samantha shook her head and bumped her elbow against his again before looking back out at the ocean.

"Sammy!" she heard Paul and Marko call out and then the sound of running feet behind her.

_Three, two, one_, Samantha thought, bracing herself for impact.

She let out a small sound when she was pulled into the strong embrace of two laughing blonds and her feet hardly touched the ground as they bounced with her. David rolled his eyes and muttered choice curses under his breath as he watched the little display. Samantha shook her head and smiled at her blond best friends.

"Hey Paul, Marko," she greeted.

"Sammy's finally here!" Marko exclaimed, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

"About damn time too," Paul agreed, pressing a louder kiss to her forehead. "Davie was hogging her all to himself and that's not fair!" He squeezed Samantha tighter. "I missed my squishy dance partner so much!"

"I missed you too, but ease up on the squishing," Samantha said, squirming in their arms. "I hurt a bit."

"You hurt?" Dwayne asked, lifting an eyebrow. He moved in closer to her and the others. "Why are you in pain, Sammy?"

"Um…" Samantha bit her bottom lip and felt heat rise in her cheeks.

Paul glanced in her eyes and then down at her body for a moment before laughing. He dropped her out of his arms and turned to face David. "You did not do that to my Sammy, Davie!" He punched him lightly on the arm. "You got in her pants!"

David shook his head, but he didn't deny it either.

Samantha grumbled under her breath as Marko eased her down onto her feet. "Sammy," he said, biting his thumbnail. "You and him?"

"I don't need the comments," Samantha said, crossing her arms over her chest and squeezing her thighs together. "I am hurting because of him."

"It's going to hurt," Dwayne told her, putting his arm around her shoulders. "It always does for a girl who just had her first time." He glared at his older brother. "Though someone could have warned you a bit more about it and eased you into it."

"I took it slow," David growled.

"He bit me," Samantha mumbled, glaring at David.

"Where?" Marko asked, hiding his smile behind his hand.

Samantha shook her head and looked away.

Paul let out a hyena-like laugh and patted David on the back. "You got Sammy on the boob? Damn! No one ever touches those!"

Samantha frowned at all of them. "You all are a bunch of assholes."

"Even me?" Dwayne asked, smoothing his hand along her arm.

"You're okay so far," Samantha told him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Just don't push it."

Paul suddenly burst out laughing again and bounced on his feet, earning the looks of some passing tourists. Even Marko had a goofy smile on his face.

"What is it now?" Samantha asked wearily.

"You have one of those, Sammy?" Paul asked, tapping her on the nose. "In purple?"

"Sammy likes purple, Paul," Marko reminded the wild blond.

Samantha's mouth dropped open and then she snapped it shut. Her eyes hardened as she fought back another wave of tears. "David! You told them about that?"

"It slipped," David said, watching her eyes with a sudden concerned gleam in his. "Samantha, are you okay?"

"I'm walking away," Samantha grumbled, turning and slipping out from under Dwayne's arm. "I need new friends that won't fucking tease me about things that I do in the privacy of my own bedroom. With my own body." She raked a hand through her hair and tugged at the roots. "I need a hairband for my hair too…Stupid stinking Boys and their constant teasing."

Samantha swiped at her face when she realized that there were tears falling down her cheeks. _What the hell? Tears again? Why am I crying at random moments like this? It's so frustrating! I'm getting so tired of this annoying crying thing…_

The girl didn't turn when she heard her nickname being called by her Boys or their running feet. She crossed her arms over her chest and sniffed, keeping her eyes focused on the boardwalk ahead of her. The buzz filled her head, but she ignored it the best that she could.

"Sammy, we're sorry," Paul said, jumping in front of her and beginning to walk backwards as he was best at doing while the others flanked her. "But we're just really happy that you're starting to be a big girl."

"Woman," Dwayne corrected, shaking his head as he walked very close to Samantha. "Sammy is a young woman."

"And doing young womanly things," Marko agreed, smiling at her as he walked backwards with Paul. "We're so proud of you, Sammy."

"Then stop teasing me about it," Samantha ordered, frowning at them. "I don't need the teasing. I don't need you to talk about my sex life because I don't have one."

David rolled his eyes. "Then what the hell did we just do back at our place, Samantha?"

"Does that really count?" Samantha asked, looking up at him. "Just one time?"

"Yes," the Boys said with smiles on their faces, except for David, who was smirking.

"Fine," Samantha said. "I have a sex life. Now drop it."

"You obviously didn't do a good job, Davie," Paul told the platinum blond with a wide smile on his face. "My Sammy is awfully moody…"

"She's been moody," David said, watching Samantha's face. "For a while now."

"And crying," Dwayne agreed, putting his hand on Samantha's shoulder and pulling her to a stop. "Sammy, you need to tell us what's going on."

Samantha looked up at her Boys as they surrounded her and let the people of the boardwalk just move around them like they weren't even there. She hated what was going on, was confused by it herself. The girl kicked the toe of her boot against the ground and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket, feeling like she had to do something with her hands other than put them in her hair because if she did, she was going to pull out strands.

"I don't know what's going on," she admitted, looking up into their faces. "I've been moody, confused, and yes, I've been crying at random moments. Over stupid things." She made a small face. "I cried over yoga the other day."

"That's not good, Sammy," Marko said, shaking his head. "Yoga is supposed to be relaxing."

"I know," Samantha muttered, shrugging her shoulders. "It's been going on for a few weeks now."

David let out a small growl. "It's the medicine again." He shook his head and turned his body slightly away. "I'm going to fucking kill your doctor, Samantha! This is the second time that's she's fucked you over!"

Samantha flinched at David's sudden burst of anger. "David…If it's the medicine, I have to stop taking it."

"Uh, yeah," Paul said, putting his tongue in his cheek. "Because we're not losing our Sammy to no nasty drug. Unless it's weed. Then we get to see how funny she gets when she's high." He put tapped her on the nose. "You're going to be cute on weed one day."

Dwayne shook his head. "Sammy, you need to talk to your doctor in the morning and tell her what's going on. Everything that's going on." He tilted his head to the side. "Or I'll make a call myself."

"I hate it when you do that to me, Dwayne," Samantha told him, frowning at the dark-haired Lost Boy that she loved like an older brother.

"I know, but someone has to get you better before something really bad happens to you," Dwayne said softly.

David put his hand on her cheek. "Because if you even begin thinking about hurting yourself again, I'm coming into your house and beating your ass before stealing you into our place and never letting you go," David warned, looking into her eyes.

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll talk to my doctor. But I have to go work in the morning, so it's going to have to wait until after I get home."

"Sammy, you can't do that," Marko said, shaking his head.

"I have no choice," Samantha shot back.

"Not good enough." David snapped his fingers to get the attention of his brothers. "Get her until she gives in."

Paul and Marko laughed and Samantha realized what they were about to do. She put her hands up and backed up into Dwayne, but couldn't escape her Boys. All four of them descended on her with tickling fingers, even though they knew she wasn't ticklish in the slightest. But they attacked her anyway and Samantha squirmed, trying to get away from them. She twisted in the middle of the group and listened to the wild laughter of Marko and Paul.

"Enough, please!" Samantha begged, putting her hands up. "Please, stop! Please! I'll talk to her in the morning! Please just stop, stop!" Her body shuddered and she bit her bottom lip as she gasped. "Stop!"

David pulled his hands back first and stared at her, hard. "Stop," he ordered the others.

The laughter cut out as the others pulled their hands back. Dwayne put his hands upon Samantha's shoulders as the girl breathed in slowly, staring up at David. David glanced down at her torso hidden by her jacket and shirt.

"Let me see your sides, Samantha," he ordered quietly.

"No," Samantha said, backing farther against Dwayne.

David moved forward quickly, using his speed and lifted her shirt up. Samantha made a small sound as he exposed pieces of her skin and he let out an angry curse. Little bruises were appearing on her sides where the Boys had tried to tickle her. Samantha hesitantly met his gaze and saw him glance at the Boys before he pulled his hands back. Samantha quickly pulled her shirt back into place and wrapped an arm around her stomach.

"I'm not in pain," she told him.

"We hurt you," he growled, his eyes flashing. "Again."

Samantha frowned as he turned and started walking away. "David!"

David threw his hand out and waved her off. Samantha shook her head and darted out of Dwayne's arms, not ready to be dismissed. She ran in front of David and put herself in his path. She thrust her finger up in his face.

"You listen, asshole," she ordered, trying to glare up at him.

"No, you listen," David said, looking down at her. "We aren't supposed to hurt you, Samantha. We promised that we would never hurt you again after the first time. And we just did." He gestured at her body. "We left fucking bruises on you just to get you to do something."

Samantha wrapped her hand in the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her level. "You shut the fuck up right now," she growled, surprising him with her language as she rarely used it, even after being around the Boys for so long. "I don't mind a few bruises every now and then. Hell, you've seen me get them randomly all over my legs and arms out of the blue. So, chill. I am not in pain from them. I am fine. The only thing that hurts is my head and where you put yourself in me, but I expect both of those areas to hurt. Okay?"

"Samantha –"

"David, it's okay," Samantha repeated, giving him a look. "Trust me, I am fine." She pressed a quick kiss to his lips and then smiled. "I love you, asshole."

David smirked at her as he put his hands on her hips and drew her to him. "You are something else, Samantha."

"I know." She glanced past him as the others came over. "You guys are okay too. No hard feelings here."

"Okay Sammy," Marko said with a small smile.

"But we're still getting you something," Paul told her. "Like a big old ice cream cone with extra sprinkles." He nudged Marko with his elbow. "We should go get her one right now, Marko buddy. Make her really happy!"

Marko nodded. "Right. Be right back, Sammy!"

Samantha rolled her eyes as her two favorite blonds darted off and glanced over at Dwayne. "They do realize that all of this ice cream is probably going to be bad for me at one point, right?" she asked him.

"Lactose in moderation is okay," he said softly. "You can take it, Sammy."  
Samantha nodded and let David press his lips against the side of her neck. If it brought him some peace after what happened with the Boys and them accidentally hurting her, then she wasn't going to complain about it. It made her awkward, even after being touched as intimately as she had, but the contact was nice.

"Behave now," Samantha whispered, feeling David start to run his lips in a path up her neck.

"How about no?" David murmured against her skin, smirking. "Dwayne's used to this kind of thing. He's just as bad when he gets a girl that he likes."

Samantha glanced up at her dark-haired best friend. "Really?"

Dwayne smiled and looked away as if suddenly embarrassed.

"David, please," Samantha said, putting her hand on his chest and pushing against him as he dragged his tongue and teeth against her flesh. "I can't do this here…or again right now."

The leader of the Lost Boys bit down on her neck lightly, earning a soft gasp from Samantha. He kissed the spot and then slowly pulled back from Samantha's neck. David kissed her lips and rested his forehead against hers.

"I'll touch you again some other time then," he promised with a small smirk. "And I'll make it more memorable, Samantha."

"Oh great," Samantha said, feeling his hands squeeze her hips. "I have to worry about you controlling yourself even more now. Great, great, great."

David chuckled and pressed his lips against hers once more. Samantha sighed as Paul and Marko's loud voices came flooding back over the sounds of the boardwalk and the two blonds bounded over to them. Paul held a large chocolate ice cream cone in his hand with lots of rainbow sprinkles on it. Marko had his hands behind his back and a Cherub smile on his face.

"Why don't I like that smile on your face, Marko sweetie?" Samantha asked, taking the ice cream cone from Paul.

"You love my smile, Sammy," Marko reminded her, smiling brighter as he rocked back and forth on his feet.

"Uh-huh." Samantha licked her ice cream. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing."

Paul laughed and tossed his wild mane of blond hair. "We got you another present, Sammy! Because you need more presents in your room!"

David swore under his breath. "You seriously got her another one?"

"Let her have some fun, David," Dwayne said with more patience than the older Lost Boy. "She's allowed to have some toys."

"Adult toys, maybe," David grumbled, squeezing Samantha's hips again. "The fun kind. Not these stupid kiddie toys."

Samantha's interest spiked. "Ooh! Let me see!"

"Ha!" Paul stuck his tongue out at David. "Sammy wants her toy, Davie! And she's our princess, so she gets it!" He grinned at Samantha. "Marko will give it to you, Princess."

Marko smiled and pulled his hands out from behind his back. "Here you go, Sammy."

In his hands was a large purple panda with large eyes that Samantha found absolutely adorable. She reached out and grasped it in one hand, pulling it to her chest. "Thank you!" she exclaimed, smiling at her two blond best friends. "You're so sweet!"

"And sexy as hell," Paul laughed, tossing his hair as he bounced on his feet. "You always forget that Sammy!"

"Shame, shame, shame," Marko agreed, wagging his finger at her. He tilted his head to the side. "You like it, Sammy?"

"Love it!" Samantha said, hugging it tighter to her side when David tried to take it from her. "This is mine, David, so hands off!"

"Hand on me then," David told her with a challenging smirk.

"Don't make me go over to Dwayne," Samantha threatened, gesturing with her eyes at the dark-haired Lost Boy.

David grabbed hold of her wrist and took a slow lick of her ice cream, holding her eyes captive. "You know that he's on my side, Samantha," he said, sliding his tongue back into his mouth.

Samantha shook her head. "You're impossible," she grumbled. "But God do I love all of you."

"Yay!" Paul and Marko shouted, throwing their fists in the air. "To our carousel!"

OOOOOOOOO

David made the other Lost Boys stay on the boardwalk when it was time for Samantha to go home for the night, seeing that she was getting tired. She changed in the bathroom and sighed as she walked down the hall, dragging her fingers down the wall of the hall as she went. The space between her thighs didn't hurt as much anymore, but she wasn't ready to do anything with her boyfriend that could do damage to that area again.

_Dad would kill him if he found out what he did to me_, Samantha thought, stepping into her room and closing the door behind her, making sure that the door was locked. _Nobody touches Daddy's girl without slipping a ring onto her finger first…Even if Dad is doesn't claim to be that protective or hug me or say "I love you" ever…_

Her green eyes turned to find David laying on her bed, his hand resting behind his head. His piercing blue eyes followed her movements as she walked over to her desk to get her nightly pills and he let out a small growl.

"Don't take that one that's messing you up," he ordered quietly.

Samantha nodded and skipped that one, even though she knew she needed sleep. "Bottom's up," she muttered, tossing the pills back. She quickly followed them down with some water. "Nasty."

"Come here for something sweeter," David called out to her.

The girl turned to look at him as she set her water bottle aside. He beckoned her forward with two finger and she smiled slightly. Samantha walked over to her bed and sank down on it, settling against his side. David wrapped his arm around her after she slid her legs under the blanket and drew her to him, pressing his lips against hers.

"Both of my parents would have heart attacks if they found out what's been going on," Samantha whispered to him when he finally pulled away from her a few moments later. "And you'd be so dead."

"I'm already dead," David reminded her, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose. "Undead is still a bit dead, Samantha."

Samantha realized something suddenly. "You didn't use a condom when we did it, David!"

"I didn't," David said, shaking his head. "Because I didn't have any non-latex ones and I didn't expect you to want me to touch you so soon." He tilted his head to the side. "Why are you so upset about that?"

"Am I going to end up with a vampire baby?" Samantha asked, putting a hand on her stomach. "Because if I do, I want it to eat Paul's face first."

David chuckled. "I think you're good. Never heard of a human getting pregnant by a vampire."

Samantha sighed in relief and rested her cheek against his chest. David ran his hand over her back and snaked his fingers under her shirt, ghosting the tips of his fingers over the light bruises that he and the Boys had left behind. Samantha drew in a soft breath at the chill of his touch.

"I'm really sorry about what we did," David said, giving her a rare apology. "We're not supposed to hurt you, Samantha. _I'm _not supposed to hurt you, ever."

"I'm okay," Samantha whispered, closing her eyes. "I really am. A few bruises aren't going to stop me from loving you Boys. It's especially not going to stop me from loving your sorry ass, David."

"That's good." David shifted his body against hers. "I've got something for you, Samantha."

"David, you know that I don't like presents that much," Samantha mumbled, opening her eyes to give him an annoyed look.

"Tough shit, Samantha." He fished something out of his jacket and twirled it around in his hand before showing it to her. "You're keeping this one and you're not arguing with me or I'm going to use this bed against you. With your fuzzy handcuffs helping me."

Samantha took the velvet box from him and pried it open. A silver ring sat on the black satin inside, dotted with blue and green gems, colored like their eyes. "David…tell me that you're not proposing to me?"

"I'm not proposing to you yet, Samantha." David plucked the ring out of the box and held it before her eyes. "This is a promise ring. It's supposed to represent a promise of my love for you forever and that I'm going to protect you from everything that wants to hurt you. I'm going to be there for you when you need me and I'm going to do my best to keep you fighting against everything that wants to tear you down. Your sister, this sickness, and that Pit of Hell that you're working in at the moment." He picked up her right hand and hesitated. "Will you accept it, Samantha?"

Samantha nodded, feeling her heart do that weird fluttery thing. _He can hear it_, she realized when David smirked at her as he slipped the ring onto her finger. _He could always hear my heart when it did this around him…but he never said anything about it. What was he thinking before told me that he loved me?_

David brought her hand up and kissed the back of it. "I think I should be going soon," he said, glancing into her eyes. "You look tired and I know you have to be up early in the morning to get to that Hell that you work at."

"Can you stay for a bit longer?" Samantha asked, placing her hand on his chest like she thought she could hold him in place. "Please? Just stay for a while, David."

"I can stay until you fall asleep," David told her, pulling her down against his chest and dragging the blanket farther up her body.

"Thanks," Samantha said, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I love you, David."

"I love you too," David said, breathing in slowly. "Now get some sleep, Samantha. I've got you and I'm keeping it that way."

Samantha nuzzled her face against his chest and closed her eyes, taking in a slow breath. She let him rub his hand slowly against her back and ease her into sleep since her sleeping medication wasn't pulling her into it anymore…

OOOOOOOOOO

Samantha woke up the next morning to find herself alone in her bed like she'd expected, but she felt lonely for it. She sighed and sat up, running a hand through her disheveled hair. Her eyes found the ring on her finger and she smiled slightly, remembering David's words to her when he had presented the ring to her.

_I love him_, Samantha thought to herself, throwing her legs over the side of the bed.

She glanced over at her desk for some reason and tilted her head to the side when she saw something there that hadn't been there before. Fixing her nightshirt as she went, Samantha walked over to her desk and looked at the thing that was sitting there.

"Hm…" Samantha said, picking up the drawing of the leader of the Lost Boys and her cuddling on her bed. "David, you're really something…I just have to figure out what exactly that is."

She sighed and tucked the drawing away in a safe place, knowing that she really had to get ready for work and then get to see her Boys again, where they would hopefully not tease her. Because she loved them and they really did love her.

**OOOOOOOOO**

**A/N: Okay, yes, I did that. All of that. I have some unresolved issues with myself and I got a bit carried away with my obsession with David, methinks. Oh well. I had fun with this one. What did you think, my lovelies? Let me know because I love talking back, obviously. I'm definitely going to come back to this eventually, but when, I don't know. So, you have that to promise. Talk to you later, all. And thank you for being so lovely! -Scarlet**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello loves! Finally got through the holiday season at work and found the time to write on this, but I've been neglecting a lot of things lately. A lot. So we'll see if I can keep up with anything these days. Enjoy while you can!**

**OOOOOOOOO**

Samantha laughed as she watched Marko and Paul fall into each other as they tried to pull of a ridiculous yoga pose that she hadn't taught them. She was dressed in sweats and a tank top with her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail that they weren't fighting her on for once on a Saturday, doing late night yoga because they asked her to show her what she knew. The girl didn't know much, but that didn't seem to bother her Boys as they laughed with her and moved back around her. David sat on her desk chair and kept silent, but Samantha could feel his eyes landing on her butt every time she had her back turned to him. Dwayne was moving next to her without his famous jacket on and trying to behave more than the two wild blonds were.

"And we stretch this way," Samantha said, moving into the next move which Dwayne copied to her left.

Paul put his tongue in his cheek and looked at her as he balanced on one foot. "Can't we put our feet behind our heads instead?"

"Or balance on our heads?" Marko laughed, jumping onto his hands.

Samantha pouted as she straightened and put her hands on her hips. "You guys stopped putting interest into this awhile ago, didn't you?"

Paul shook his head. "Nah…we're just trying to get you to do tricks, Sammy."

"David," Samantha sighed, turning to look at her boyfriend.

David's ice blue eyes lifted to meet her green ones and Samantha felt her body grow warm under his stare. He smirked at her as if he could read her thoughts, though he had promised to stay out of her head with his vampire abilities. They had all made that promise when they had first become her friends and found out about her schizophrenia. She didn't want them to get involved with that issue and her baseline hallucinations.

"Maybe you need to break out the fuzzy handcuffs and chain them together," David suggested, reaching out and grabbing her by the drawstrings of her sweatpants so he could pull her to him. "Make them deal with each other for a bit."

"Like Sammy wants to bring out those, Davie," Marko laughed, flipping onto his feet again.

"Yeah, our Sammy is embarrassed about them, remember?" Paul said, putting his elbow on Marko's shoulder.

Samantha bit her bottom lip and glanced at David. His smirk grew deadly, but he remained silent, betraying nothing else. They had admittedly tried the fuzzy handcuffs a couple times in the few months that they had been experimenting with Samantha's comfort level with intimacy. She could now comfortably get undressed with David in the room, but she was still awkward with sex, but he was patient and teaching her slowly, not trying to spook her or pressure her into anything too early.

Dwayne kicked up Samantha's yoga mat and started rolling it up. "Sammy, do you want to go to the boardwalk since these two can't pay attention to this anymore?"

Samantha nodded, grateful for the deflection from the fuzzy handcuffs and her sex life. "I'll need to change before we go."

David rose to his feet and gave Paul and Marko a hard look. "You fuckers get out. Go bug her sisters, her parents, anyone but her. Dwayne, keep them out."

Marko pouted from behind his thumbnail. "Aw, but Davie."

"We wanna stay!" Paul whined, stomping his foot.

"Out," David ordered, flashing his fangs.

Paul and Marko frowned but obeyed with puppy-dog eyes in Samantha's direction. Samantha watched Dwayne follow after them after he set her yoga mat back in its corner. David closed the door behind them and turned to face her with a smirk on his face.

"You're mean," Samantha said, putting her hands on her hips.

"You're cute," David shot back, approaching her slowly like a predator stalking his prey. "Especially when you think you're trying to put up a fight."

Samantha put her chin out defiantly and glared up at him as he slid his hands along her arms. "David, I have to get dressed for the boardwalk," she complained when he pressed light kisses along her cheeks to her throat.

"You know what that means, don't you?"

"What?" Samantha asked, sucking in a breath when he nipped at her shoulder.

David's breath hit her ear. "We have to take your clothes off first, Samantha."

Samantha shivered and looked up at him when his hands slid down her sides to grasp the hem of her tank top. "David…I want to wear this tank top to the boardwalk tonight."

She didn't miss how David's eyes gleamed at her words. His hands slid away from her tank top to the waistband of her sweatpants. "Then these…have to come off…"

Samantha made a small sound as David slid down her body, tugging her sweatpants off of her. She lifted her feet out of it and he tossed the pants aside, running his cool fingers over her bared legs. Samantha held her breath as he kissed her right thigh and looked down at him as he remained crouched in front of her.

"Can you stand up again?" she asked, tapping him on the shoulder.

"I think I am standing," David said with a smirk, glancing up at her. He poked her hip. "Are those a pair of underwear that I bought you?"

Samantha blushed. "David, yes, but please just stand up. Please? I want to find a pair of jeans and leave my parents' house while I still have a spark of sanity in myself."

David chuckled and straightened. He pressed a quick kiss to Samantha's lips before steering her towards her closet. "You're lasting longer without your clothes in your parents' house," he commented. His eyes turned back towards her when he handed her a pair of dark-wash jeans.  
"Someday you might let me make love to you here."

Samantha made a face. "Uh-uh. You know how thin these walls are. And you know I have no flipping privacy in this place. We can barely make out without me getting almost barged in on." She slipped into her jeans and zipped them up. "I really can't stand having two of my four sisters here and you know that Mom is no better. At least Dad respects my privacy, but…" She made a sound with her tongue and reached for her leather jacket off her rack.

David waited for her to put her jacket on before slipping his hands around her waist and pulling her to him. "We're working on getting you out of here," he promised, his eyes holding hers. "But we've got to handle the Max situation and other vampires. And we have no idea how your mental health is going to be affected by the Change…"

"All the things," Samantha mumbled, lowering her gaze to her boyfriend's chest. Her brow furrowed. "I suppose I can tough it out for a while longer."

"We still have you every night," David reminded her, tapping his fingers against the small of her back. He chuckled. "That you're not exhausted from your nightmare job."

Samantha nodded and backed them out of her closet. She looked up at him again and wished that she had the words to explain that she wanted out of her job more than anything now. They were killing her there and that was why she was calling off of so many days with migraines that knocked her off her feet and caused her to throw up. She got dizzy, overheated, blacked out and was exhausted to the point that she fell asleep on David and found herself being carried back to her room, to a place that she didn't want to be with the way that her parents treated her like she was a child and her sisters hated her. But at least she had her Boys.

"Can we go now, David?" Samantha asked, wincing as she heard Paul and Marko pounding on one of her sisters' doors. "Before they get you all banned forever?"  
David nodded and led the way to the door. "Hey fuckers, we're leaving!"

OOOOOOOOO

The Boys sat with Samantha at the tables, eating chili and hot dogs and goofed off like normal, but Samantha was getting distracted with things again. She glanced over at Paul and elbowed him. He leaned into her and smiled.

"Yeah, Sammy?"

"I need to make a break for it," she whispered while David growled at some Surf Nazis that grew too close. "I wanna run for a bit."

Paul's eyes lit up. "I've got you."

Samantha grabbed her empty chili bowl and swung her legs over the bench seat. "Be right back," she said casually.

She walked over to the trashcans and dumped her trash in it before glancing over her shoulder. Paul was dancing on the table now, kicking things around and singing loudly. Samantha turned and continued walking, disappearing into the crowd. She knew she could put some distance between her and the Boys before they would notice she hadn't come back to the table if Paul kept up his antics. Hopefully she could be okay without them for a bit.

_Breathe, _Samantha told herself, wrapping her arms around herself and looking at the faces around her. _This is just like it was before you met the Boys and you handled yourself just fine. True, you never wandered away from that one place, but you were okay. You can do this._

Samantha moved along the boardwalk, window shopping for several minutes before the buzzing in her head started to bug her. She knew that she was going to be in trouble with at least David and Dwayne when they found her. Definitely David. She wasn't supposed to wander off alone on the boardwalk. Especially now that she was on an emergency medicine that they were trying to get her used to taking when she had bad episodes. Samantha had forgotten it at home tonight and she knew that David would be concerned about her. They all would.

_Relax…_

Samantha turned onto another part of the boardwalk and looked out at the ocean. She felt eyes on her and saw some Surf Nazis watching her. Her stomach turned when she saw the looks in their eyes. She knew it was time to go back to the Boys, or let them find her. She had to get back to them and fast.

Samantha started to go back in the direction that she had come from, but as she moved, so did the Surf Nazis and they started to cross into her path. Samantha pulled herself to a stop and stared at them for a moment before backing up. She turned and walked away, trying to put distance between them in her without running. If she ran, they'd really chase her down. She didn't want that. But she did want to scream. If she screamed, maybe the Boys would hear her and would come running for her.

_I can't do that, _Samantha thought, shaking her head as she walked. _If they think I'm in real danger, they'll come with their fangs out and that could put them in danger. I won't do that to them. I can't._

Samantha made a sound in the back of her throat when she felt someone grab the collar of her jacket and pull her to a stop. She watched as the Surf Nazis circled her and leered at her from all sides. Her eyes sought an opening, but there wasn't any. She was trapped like one of the characters in the stories that she wrote.

"Let me go," she ordered in a small voice, though she had tried to put more force into it.

"Where are those posers in leather that you're always hanging around, cutie?" one of them asked, his dirty blond hair smelling like ocean and hair gel when he leaned into Samantha's face.

Samantha shook her head. "They're around. And they're going to be pissed if they find you messing with me. So you better let me go. Now."

She jerked herself forward out of the grip of the one holding her by the collar and almost ran into another one's arms. Samantha heard them laugh as they pressed in closer to her, tightening their ranks. Eddie buzzed in her head and she heard cawing in her head, reminding her that the Ravens had come back recently.

"I don't think we're going anywhere," one said.

"And I don't think your posers are around," another agreed with a grin. "I think they dumped your ass."

Samantha shook her head. "You don't know them then. They don't dump people like this and let them breathe." She frowned. "You'll find that out if you don't leave me the hell alone."

"Big talk from a little girl," the first said. "We could shut you up easily." He put a hand to the top of his pants. "I bet you know how to make a man very happy if you could keep those posers around for so long, cutie."

Samantha blanched and backed away from him. "You're sick. You're all fucking sick."

She sucked in a breath as they closed in tighter around her and two of them grabbed her by the arms. Samantha knew she had to scream, but her breath caught in her chest when the voices kicked up and she saw Eddie and Shadowman standing there beyond the group. Her eyes widened and Samantha started to hyperventilate.

_David…please come_, Samantha thought, feeling a tear slide down the curve of her cheek.

"Let go of her!" David's voice cracked like a whip as the Surf Nazis were ripped away from Samantha and the Boys were suddenly there, looking dangerous and putting themselves around her. "You fuckers messed with the wrong Lost Girl!"

"David…" Samantha whispered, staring at his back as he reached behind him and put his hand on her arm to make sure she was still behind him.

"It's all right, Sammy," Dwayne said, glancing over his shoulder at her. "We've got you."

"Yeah, these pussies are about to get their asses whooped," Paul laughed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He motioned them forward with his hands. "Bring it on, boys."

The Surf Nazis must have seen something in the eyes of the Boys because they turned tail and ran off into the crowd without looking back. Samantha let out a small sigh of relief and put a hand over David's, squeezing his fingers. The leader of the Lost Boys turned around slowly and looked at her with a hint of feral yellow in his blue eyes. The other Boys surrounded her and Marko bumped her with his elbow.

"You okay, Sammy?" he asked, biting his thumbnail.

"I'm – I'm not," Samantha admitted, shaking her head, knowing it wasn't worth it to lie. "I need an emergency med and I don't have one on me…"

Paul reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pill bottle. "Got you covered, Princess."

Samantha took the pill he handed her and walked over to the nearest vendor, buying herself some water since she knew she couldn't take these pills without a liquid. The Boys followed and watched her closely. Samantha sighed and waited for the onslaught of remarks.

"What did you think you were doing walking off on your own?" David demanded, going first. "You know better than to go off like that, Samantha."

"David…" Samantha whispered, capping her water bottle.

"Don't you fucking David me," David snapped, pointing a finger in her face. "Do you realize what could have happened to you if we hadn't found you? Those bastards or someone worse than them could have gotten their fucking hands on you and you'd be dead. Is that what you want?"

"No, I just wanted to breathe for a moment," Samantha said, tightening her hand on the water bottle.

"You wanted to breathe?" David laughed coldly and looked at the Boys. "She wanted to breathe. Samantha, if you wanted to fucking breathe, we would have left you alone. We would have let those fuckers touch you. Is that what you wanted?"

"David!" Dwayne snapped as Samantha dropped her water bottle and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Dude, you need to chill," Paul said, shaking his head. "That's no way to talk to our Sammy."

"Sammy, are you okay?" Marko asked, looking at her with soft eyes.

Samantha tore her eyes away from David and looked at Dwayne. "Take me away from him, please, Dwayne. I can't breathe."

Dwayne wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led the girl away from the group, though she felt the stares of the others on her back as she walked. Samantha sniffled, but no tears fell surprisingly. The dark-haired Lost Boy smoothed his fingers over her shoulder and kept walking with her.

"I can't believe he talked to me like that," Samantha muttered after a while. "I know I was stupid for walking away from you Boys, but I can't believe David talked to me like he did. I just wanted to be myself for a few minutes. I didn't expect to go apeshit crazy or be harassed by Surf Nazis."

"I know Sammy, I know," Dwayne said, glancing down at her. "But you have to realize that you can't really go anywhere on this boardwalk without being harassed by Surf Nazis when you're by yourself and that's why we don't want you to go by yourself. We can't stop you during the daylight hours, but at night, we can keep an eye on you."

Samantha sighed and brushed back a stubborn strand of hair. "I'm usually working for most of the daylight hours at my nightmare job though…"

"Where you're harassed by a different kind of monster and get stressed out," Dwayne agreed, shaking his head. His dark eyes peered down into hers as he pulled her to the side of the boardwalk. "Sammy, I'm concerned about you. We all are, but David and I are the most because we can fully grasp what's going on here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small orange pill bottle full of her emergency meds. "We're the ones that told your doctor to get you on this, Sammy because of your episodes and they are helping you, despite the sleep that follows afterwards."

Samantha nodded and looked out at the ocean over the side of the boardwalk. "Dwayne, I'm grateful for you Boys and your help, but why is David such an ass about this?" She touched her promise ring from the leader of the Lost Boys. "I go AWOL for what, ten minutes, and he's ready to throw me to the dogs. Tears me into shreds. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry."

She rested her forehead on the wood of the railing and closed her eyes, trying to rein in her emotions which she wasn't the best at these days. Dwayne slid his hand over her back and looked out at the ocean.

"David's only acting this way because he's hurt," Dwayne said softly. "He got scared when he couldn't find you in the crowd, Sammy. David has loved you since the second night that we knew you."

Samantha lifted her face away the rail and looked up at him. "Really?"

Dwayne nodded. "You managed to get into his heart and he's wanted to protect you ever since, but you're running away and you're hurting – both mentally and physically and there's nothing that he can really do about it. All we can do is watch and be there to put a smile on your face when we can. We're trying, Sammy. He's trying and he's afraid that he might hurt you or that you're going to be hurt because he can't get there in time."

Samantha sniffled. "So he's being a bigger ass to compensate?"

"Yeah."

The girl sighed and looked back out at the ocean. "I see…"

The two stood in silence for a few moments, just listening to the world around them and Samantha let her medicine calm her down. She felt Dwayne move next to her and looked up at him.

"David wants to see you," he announced, looking down at her.

OOOOOOOOOO

Samantha walked ahead of Dwayne until she found David standing at another portion of the boardwalk, his back to her, still looking like a dangerous biker sex god under the moonlight. Samantha slid her hands into her jacket pockets and walked over to his side, knowing Dwayne would disappear to find the others and leave them alone until David gave him the mental word to return. She looked out at the ocean and smelled the familiar scent of David's cigarettes as the leader of the Lost Boys took a drag on his cigarette.

"I didn't want to run away," Samantha muttered, shifting her weight against the boards. "Not like that, David…"

"I know," David said, pulling his cigarette from his lips. He sighed. "Samantha, I'm sorry for snapping at you like that. I said some shit that I shouldn't have said and…I'm just – I'm just sorry. Okay?"

"Okay, asshole," Samantha said, elbowing him.

David elbowed her back. "I'm trying to be nice to you, Samantha."

"Try harder, meanie," Samantha laughed, pulling her hand free of her pocket and poking him.

David smirked as he flicked his cigarette butt out into the ocean and grabbed her. He moved her in front of him and pinned her between the railing and his body, looking down into her eyes with his piercing blue eyes.

"Meanie? I know you have some better words than that, Miss English Major," David said, smoothing a hand along her cheek and grasping her hip with the other. "And I'm being as nice as I can with people around."

Samantha smacked him on the chest. "Mean little jerk."

"Mean big jerk," David corrected with a smirk. He waved a hand over her head. "I'm taller and bigger than you by a lot."

The girl growled. "Kiss me in the next five seconds or you get nothing until I go home."

David cupped her chin with his hand and tilted her face up, pressing his lips to hers in a tender kiss. Samantha let him take the kiss deeper for just a moment before nipping his bottom lip and breaking the kiss. She smiled at him and David chuckled as he looked at her eyes.

"You're going to need to get back to your parents' soon," he said, shaking his head. "Those meds are kicking in and they're kicking in fast."

Samantha nodded and leaned into him, breathing in his familiar scent slowly. "I don't think I can go through the usual bedtime routine, David. Just tuck in and sleep this off."

David wrapped his arms around her and threaded his fingers through her hair. "I'll get you home, Samantha. Then the Boys and I have something we have to take care of."

The girl nodded tiredly against the fabric of his clothes. She felt the ground leave her feet and suddenly she was on David's back, but everything after that was a blur. She could hear howling air and didn't know if she was flying or on David's motorcycle. If he had flown, she hoped to God that he had had been able to keep the vampire secret from the world. He landed them outside her window and carried her inside.

Samantha was stripped of her jacket, shoes, and socks, but refused to let David strip her of anything else. She let him back her up to her new bed and throw her lightly onto the pillows where she settled and looked up at the dark ceiling. The girl yawned and reached for the vampire panda teddy that David and the Boys had gotten her at the boardwalk a couple weeks back, snuggling that against her. David made a sound as he sat on the edge of the bed and slid a hand over her stomach, stroking it under her shirt.

"I love you, Samantha," he said, watching her eyes.

Samantha nodded and yawned. "I love you too, David."

"And I'll see you tomorrow night," David promised, his fingers cold against her flesh. "Seven thirty at your front door. Don't make me come up here for you."

Samantha hummed an affirmative. She made a small face and David leaned over her, pressing his lips to hers in a brief kiss. Samantha kissed him softly and sighed as he parted from her, looking up at him.

"You're beautiful," she commented softly as her eyes grew heavy.

"And you're about to go," David said, shaking his head as he straightened over her. "I'll see you tomorrow, Samantha. Goodnight, love."

"Goodnight, David," Samantha whispered, closing her eyes.

OOOOOOOOO

Samantha moved around her living room the next morning and listened to the television playing the news. Another round of murders had taken place in the city and Samantha glanced at the screen in passing as she made to take her cup of coffee to the next room. Her eyes widened for a moment as she recognized some of the faces on the screen, the faces of the Surf Nazis that had harassed her the night before, but not all of them had been posted on the news.

"Figures," Samantha said, shaking her head as she walked out of the room and headed back to the kitchen.

She looked up from her coffee when she heard a knock on the door and walked over to answer it. Peering out, she saw a delivery man holding a package.

"Yes?"

"I got a delivery for a Samantha S?" the guy said, glancing at the package.

Samantha dealt with him and closed the door. She glanced down the package and almost dropped her coffee and the package. "Oh God! What does he want?"

OOOOOOOOOO

**A/N: I'm having fun with this story still. It's still going to be disjointed as hell and I won't update it as much as I update my other stories as it's not a main one, but when the mood strikes, boom, update! I like it and eventually there will be a close. I'll have to do it and I think I know how I want it to end, but as you can see, something else is about to happen. Something weird? Maybe. If I can remember. Let me know what you think. As always, I love and appreciate you! Thank you! -Scarlet**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hello loves. This chapter took entirely too long for me to write today. I kept getting distracted by things. And I wish I hadn't because I had other things I wanted to do today. Oh well. I'm sorry for the huge gap in time between updates, but life happens and my life has been a major rollercoaster with a giant hill. Forgive me? Here's an update as penance and for good measure, changes.**

**OOOOOOOOO**

Samantha didn't want to think about the package that she had received in the mail. She didn't want to think about it at all, so she tucked it away and went about her life like it didn't matter. But she wasn't prepared for the strain of her parents and her sisters getting on her combined with work and had a feeling that the Boys could sense it. A little squeak passed through her lips as she opened the door two nights later and the Boys pushed their way in, laughing loudly and already sounding excited.

"Upstairs, right now, young Sammy," Paul said, pushing her along.

"We got goodies for you," Marko told her.

"What? Why?" Samantha asked, dragging her feet as she looked around at the bright eyes of the Boys. Her eyes landed on David's face and his wicked smirk. "David, what's going on?"

"We're doing a little major spoiling tonight like you've never had, Samantha," David told her, brushing his cool fingertips against the side of her face. "Breaking a few rules that your parents set out for you…brining that spark of yours to life." His ice blue eyes burned. "We're starting with a little makeover."

Samantha gulped. "A makeover?"

Dwayne shook one of the bags in his hands. "Just some things to make you look how you've always talked about wanting to look, Sammy."

Samantha stared at them as she stopped walking. They were going to change her? They were going to make her look different? Because they knew it was time for a change and it was time to do something? She felt her heart start to pound in her chest and her mind started to do funny things with the possibilities.

"Sammy's going to have to start moving, Davie," Paul commented, bouncing on his toes. "We've got so much to do tonight and so little time."

David reached out and grabbed Samantha, throwing her over his broad shoulder. "Lead the way, Boys."

Samantha snapped out of her daze as David carried her up the stairs and realized what was going on. "David!" she hissed, squirming. "Put me down!"

"No," David said, running his hand over her spine. "I like manhandling you."

The girl reached down and hit him hard on the ass. "Put me down."

David growled. "Oh yes, punish me, Samantha. I'll take it right back out on you later."

Color flamed up Samantha's cheeks. "We're not going there."

A soft chuckle passed through David's lips. "Yes, we are."

"Nope." She smacked him again and then went limp. "Ugh. Are we at my room yet? You guys are just messing with me and it's not fair. Four against one. When am I going to have one of you on my side?"

"Never, Sammy, never!" Marko laughed, popping open the door to the bathroom and they all crowded inside it.

Samantha was put in front of the bathroom vanity mirror and a towel was draped around her shoulders as her hair was released from its ponytail. Paul took a brush to her hair and started singing as he did so, looking happy with himself. Samantha was confused as Dwayne started rifling through one of the bags.

"What are we doing in here?"

"Pit stop," Dwayne explained, pulling out a small box. "We want to work on your hair first and get it the way that you like it, Sammy. Starting with this."

Samantha was handed a box of not so cheap hair dye, but it wasn't burgundy like she was used to getting. No, this was black. Rich black. Something that she had longed to dye her hair for years, but had given up on because so many people had told her it was unnatural for someone like her to have black hair. She stared at it and then clutched it to her chest.

"You're really going to dye my hair black?" she asked, staring at Paul.

"If you hand the dye over, Princess," Paul laughed, holding his hand out. "You're going to look so hot as a dark-haired girly. So badass."

Samantha slowly relinquished the box. "But my parents…"

"Fuck them," David growled, smoothing his hands up and down her arms. "It's your hair and if you want to dye it purple, you dye it purple any time you damn well please. They have no control over what you do with yourself anymore, Samantha. You're an adult. Accept your freedoms, Accept yourself."

Paul mixed up the hair dye and then looked at Samantha as he pulled on the gloves. "Doctor Paul is ready to operate. Are you ready to look fabulous?"

Samantha nodded and closed her eyes, knowing she wouldn't see any of the Boys in the mirror. Paul started attacking her hair with expert skill. David moved next to Samantha.

"Samantha, there's something I need to tell you," he said quietly.

"What's that?"

"Your family is abusing you and they've been abusing and controlling you for all your life," David told her. He poked her chest. "They've put you in the wrong size clothes. I've checked while you were sleeping. These. These aren't what you think they are. They're smaller around the band and bigger in the cup. And your feet? They're not size eleven. You're a nine and a half, Samantha. You have a bunch of clothes in your closet that are falling off of you, that are obviously not your style, and don't get me started on how some of them are obviously older than shit."

Samantha peeked shyly at the leader of the Lost Boys through her lashes. "David…"

"Your parents insult you for your looks. They call you crazy. You've told me that your dad used to pull your hair out for no fucking reason when you were a kid. They keep taking your money. Your sisters hit you and they all force you into your room when you get home from work. You can't touch your hair; you can't go use the vehicles that you've bought for the family that they don't take care of. They control every aspect of your life; Samantha and it kills us to watch it happen. Why do you let them do it?"

"Because I'm weak and I don't have a voice, David," Samantha told him. "I can barely raise my voice to you Boys and I feel bad afterwards. I have to be quiet."

"No, you don't Sammy," Marko said, shaking his curly blond head.

"You have a voice and you can learn to use it," Dwayne stated. "We'll help you."

Samantha nodded and lowered her gaze again as Paul stepped back and announced that they had twenty five minutes to kill before rinsing her hair out. Dwayne and Marko looked at each other and slipped out of the bathroom, closing the door behind them and Samantha wondered where they were going, but Paul started telling a story that distracted her.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Okay, Sammy," Paul said, blowing her hair out and finishing it with a quick brushing. "I have to say, wow. Just wow. You look hot." He bounced on his toes. "Turn around and see! Do it, do it!"

Samantha looked up into David's ice blue eyes and then turned around to look at the mirror, doing a double take at her reflection. Her hair was shiny and black and soft and she absolutely loved it. It didn't look unnatural to her. Somehow it complimented her ivory skin so well and made her green eyes pop. She put a hand to her lips as she studied her hair and David put his lips to her ear, though she couldn't see him reflected in the mirror.

"What do you think?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I love it," Samantha whispered, staring at her reflection with watery eyes.

"Aw, Sammy," Paul said, touching her cheek. "Don't cry. Don't cry over your beautiful hair." He wrapped his arms around her and placed a big kiss to her cheek. "You look so pretty, Sammy." The blond danced back. "Davie, your turn."

Samantha watched as Paul left the bathroom and closed the door behind him. David scooped up the bag again and started rifling through it. "David, what did he mean?"

"We still have some work to do," David told her, pulling out some clothes and a small silver bag. "Get naked."

"David!" Samantha protested, stepping back.

David smirked at her like a predator. "It's a simple request made in innocence, Samantha. But. If you want to make it more than that, I'd be more than happy to oblige in this little bathroom."

Samantha shivered and thought about it for a half second. She shook her head, crossing her arms. "Why do I have to be naked?"

The leader of the Lost Boys leaned closer to her. "So we can get you ready to face the world."

He started tugging at her clothes until she was wearing nothing but her earrings. Samantha glared at him as she crossed her arms over her chest again. David smirked.

"So moody," he commented, pressing a kiss to her lips.

"Meh."

David handed her a pair of black underwear. "These should fit better than what you had before and they're prettier."

Samantha rolled her eyes and slid them on. She was surprised that there was no unusual gapping anywhere on them. David met her gaze as he handed her the black bra with rose lace on it. Samantha carefully put that one on and adjusted herself, looking down. No gaps and she was amazed at the fit. David reached over and adjusted the position of the straps before cupping her chin.

"This is how everything should fit under your clothes, Samantha," he told her softly. "Your mom should have taught you that, all your sisters should have been taught that, but no…" He brushed his nose against hers. "It's okay though. I've got you."

Samantha trembled and let David press another kiss to her lips before he moved to grab the clothes. He handed her a pair of black jeans with white designs marked in them and silver embellishments and a black camisole-tank top mixture that she just loved from the look of it. Samantha eagerly slipped these clothes on and tried to go over to the mirror again, but David blocked her.

"You're not ready," David said, shaking his head.

Marko hopped into the room again and opened the silver bag. "My turn, my turn to help the pretty new Sammy."

Samantha looked at the makeup he was pulling out. Dark makeup and makeup brushes that had purple crystal handles. She listened to his every instruction, mesmerized by what was happening and was so confused.

_What are they doing to me? _Samantha wondered, blinking her eyes after Marko applied mascara to her lashes. _What have they done?_

David attached a choker around her neck and then spun her around. "Look."

Samantha turned around and looked at herself in the mirror and couldn't believe she was looking at herself anymore. But it was her. Just in Gothic form. Just how she felt the most comfortable whenever she dressed like this on Halloween, the one time her parents let her do this kind of thing without throwing a fit. She had always been Gothic, but she couldn't embrace it because how evil her parents and grandparents thought it was. And seeing herself transformed into this beautiful dark creature was…

"Oh my God," she whispered, staring at her black lipstick and darkened eyes. "You made me dark…"

"We brought out the real you, Samantha," David stated as Marko gathered what was left in the bathroom from the makeover and vanished again. "Can you honestly say that you're not happier this way?"

Samantha looked at him with wide eyes. "David, I don't know what to say…"

David smirked. "Speechless with happiness?"

"I'm happy, but scared too," Samantha said, shaking her head. "What's going to happen when my parents see me like this? They're going to make me wash this black makeup off my face and throw a fit over my hair…and the clothes…they might be okay with the clothes until Mom finds the underclothes and thinks they're too sexy and gets on me for them…"

David took her face between his hands and looked her in the eyes. "Samantha, breathe. Right now. Breathe and focus. Your parents can't do shit. This is your life. Your happiness. Just like we don't let Max control our happiness, you don't let your parents have a say in yours. You've always wanted to showcase your Gothic nature, so do it. Let it breathe. Let it shine."

"David…" Samantha whispered, searching his eyes.

"I love you, Samantha," David told her. "And this is you…don't hide anymore."

Samantha blinked and offered him a weak smile. "I'll try my best."

David kissed her hard and Samantha lost herself in the passion of his kiss, knowing that he meant everything that he had ever said to her…

OOOOOOOOOOOO

David refused to let Samantha go back to her room after they left the bathroom. Instead he led her back downstairs and challenged her to a few rounds of a fighting game on the PS4 that she had helped buy the majority of for the family. After a few rounds in which she won against the leader of the Lost Boy, one of her sisters came into the room and sat on the arm of a couch in there, silent at first.

"Your hair smells," she complained, eyeing the television screen.

"Your fucking armpits smell," David said under his breath, eyes glued to the screen.

"I dyed my hair tonight," Samantha explained, elbowing David to shut him up before he could get her in trouble with her tattletale sister. "You like it?"

"Not really. It's hair." Her sister stared at the screen. "Can I play on the PS4 now? I wanna play Soul Calibur with…"

"Um…I'm almost done with this round with David," Samantha said, pushing buttons faster. "He's not that great at this game."

"Hey, I'm getting better," David retorted, mashing buttons.

Samantha's character won anyway and she was about to exit out of the game, but David reached over and pressed character select again. Samantha looked over at him as her sister gave a groan.

"A few more rounds won't hurt," David stated, putting his hands back on his controller. "It's not like you get to play on this thing much anyway. And you bought it."

"David, she needs to let me play," Samantha's sister said, stomping her foot. "Why can't you two go out like normal and let me play?"

"Scram punk. We'll let you know when you can hog the PS4 to yourself again. Let Samantha play for once in your miserable soul sucking life."

Her sister looked horrified and hurried out of the room. A sinking feeling hit Samantha's stomach as Samantha realized what could happen now that her sister had been chastised by David and probably considered some of what he said an insult. Things could turn ugly and she wasn't prepared for ugly. Not from her parents.

"Relax, Samantha." David started fighting her in the game. "I've got you. We've all got you."

Samantha nodded and started actively playing the game. She wanted to make sure that everything was going to be okay. And kicking his ass at a game that was supposed to be from a franchise older than her? That was a bonus.

She looked up as he tossed the controller down unceremoniously a half hour later. "We're done," he announced, looking at her. "Turn the game off. Let your hellish sisters have their fun with the system. Come with me to your room. The Boys are waiting with a surprise."

Samantha felt her heart flutter in her chest as she crawled off the couch and over to the game console. She dealt with that for a few moments in confusion and then moved back over to David. The biker sex god took her by the hand and pulled her out of the family room.

"The console's all yours, Brat," David announced as they passed her baby sister who had been the one to demand the use of the console before.

Samantha flinched at the look in her sister's eyes and continued on her way, not that she had a choice with the way that David was pulling her forward. She hurried along after him and upstairs until they got upstairs. Then she broke free and put herself between the door and the vampire.

"What did they do in there?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes at him.

"If you turn around and go in there, you'll see," David told her with a small smirk.

"Oh bite me," Samantha snapped.

David leaned forward and moved her freshly dyed hair out of the way. He latched onto her neck and bite down on her flesh, sucking slightly as well. Samantha gasped and shivered, unable to suppress a moan from passing through her lips. David kissed her neck and pulled away, giving her neck an approving look.

"Don't tempt me with a good time, Samantha," David warned.

"Asshole," Samantha hissed, rubbing her neck above the choker.

"Always," David promised, flashing his pearly whites. "Now, go inside your room. The Boys want to surprise you."

The dark-haired girl rolled her eyes and opened the door before turning around. She stepped into her room and moved to the center before her jaw dropped.

"What – what?" she asked, blinking.

Her walls where they were exposed were black with stars painted on them. Her dagger wall had been replaced with a board that had blended in with the wall and had been arranged a way that she had drawn out, mixed with new daggers and Celtic knot designs in the background. Moons lit up her curtains now. Skulls on her bedsheets and pillowcases. More pandas on her bed. Crystals and skulls on her bookshelves and Wiccan books mixed in her books. Better quality paints and paintbrushes in glass containers and more canvas panels. Wooden boxes to hold her chokers and headbands. When she walked over to her closet, there were less of her ill-fitting clothes and more black clothes that she adored. And her shoes had been replaced with different ones in a smaller size.

"You…you Boys replaced so much…" Samantha whispered, stepping back into her room and looking at her Boys.

"Surprise Sammy!" Paul and Marko said, jumping up and down.

Samantha's brow furrowed. "Why did you do this?"

"Because we wanted you to feel more like yourself and have the good things in life," Dwayne explained, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Samantha glanced around her again and broke away from him. She walked around her room and ran her fingers over the loose items before making it over to her bed. Once there, she pounced on it and started bouncing on her knees.

"I love it," Samantha whispered, looking around the room. "I love it so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Paul and Marko bowed repeatedly in an exaggerated manner. Dwayne however moved over to her desk and picked up something. David's eyes flashed onto it and then back onto Samantha as Dwayne rejoined his side. Samantha immediately stopped bouncing and grabbed a panda, clutching it to her chest.

"We found this while we were going over her room," Dwayne announced, handing over the small brown box.

"Among other things," Paul laughed, elbowing Marko.

"Hehe…Kinky little Sammy," Marko teased, wagging his finger at her.

Samantha snapped her teeth at him and watched David look inside the box and scan over the note that came with it. His jaw clenched and then he looked at her again.

"Why did you hide this, Samantha?" he demanded, shaking the box.

"I didn't know how to tell you," Samantha whispered. "I wanted to ignore it."

"You can't ignore something like this," David told her in an annoyed tone. "Max won't be ignored once he's got his eyes set on something. And he just picked you as a plaything."

Samantha shook her head. "Not interested in that."

"That's not how Max thinks or works, Sammy," Dwayne said, almost sadly.

Marko pouted and nodded. "He's going to try to take you away from us."

"And we're not going to let it happen," Paul told her. "Because you're our Sammy and I found you first!"

"I found her first," Marko countered, elbowing his brother.

"As if!"

Samantha swung her legs out from under her and patted the spot next to her. "David…"

David moved over to sit next to her and watched her face. Samantha lifted her right hand and showed him the ring that he had placed there. The promise ring with the stones that matched their eyes. Samantha wiggled her fingers so that the stones caught the light of her room and glittered.

"I'm not going anywhere," Samantha promised him. She pressed her hand to his cheek and smoothed it over his stubble. "Max can go fuck himself if he thinks that a stupid bunch of smelly candles and a necklace is going to make me think any different about him. I don't like candles. I don't do gold. And I don't fucking like him." She tapped her fingers against his cool skin. "I love you. I love the Boys as family. You have nothing to worry about, stupid asshole."

David searched her eyes and growled. "I'll beat his ass if he comes anywhere near you."

"I'll throw pesos at you to encourage you," Samantha told him. "We'll go for a drive after that to celebrate."

David smirked. "You have it all figured out, Samantha."

"Yep." She pressed her lips to his in a quick, tender kiss and then looked at the other Boys. "Are you done spoiling me yet?" she asked, giving them big eyes.

"Nope," Paul and Marko shouted, shaking their heads while Dwayne gathered up her laptop. "Not even close!"

"Guys!" Samantha whined, flopping back against her pillows.

"Deal with it, Samantha." David took the laptop and entered in her password before logging into her Amazon account as well. "We're going shopping."

"But I don't have any money in my account to do shopping," Samantha pointed out, waving a hand.

Dwayne whistled to get her attention and waved a credit card at her. "We've got plenty, Sammy."

Samantha stared at it. "That was stolen?"

"No…"

"Came from Max?"

"Yes."

"Is it wise to use it for me then?" Samantha asked, worrying now. "Shouldn't you be using it on yourself?"

"Duh, we're going to use it on you," Paul said, jumping onto her desk chair and spinning around on it. "Why do you think we steal from people for?"

"For fun?"

"That too."

"Let us spoil you, Sammy," Marko said, hopping onto the foot of her bed.

Samantha sighed and nodded. "Fine, spoil me. A bit."

"A lot," David corrected. He clicked the search bar. "Let's get ordering. Nothing is off limits. And we better be here when you open each package."

Samantha squeaked and tried to wrack her brain for everything that she had ever wanted, the possibilities now endless.

OOOOOOOOOOO

David and the Boys treated Samantha to a big shopping spree on Amazon and other sites before taking her out for dinner and a drive. He tucked her in and moved towards the house that his Master slept in so cozy and safe. Thorn greeted him with a snarl, but David merely snarled back, making the dog cower.

"Temper, temper, David," Max said, appearing at the gate next to his dog. "Is that anyway to treat the man that gave you the card which you just blew one thousand dollars on in one night for one girl? Hm?"

David pointed a finger in his Master's face. "You drop your case for her, Max. She's off limits to you. I already claimed her. She loves me and I want her. You keep your fucking hands off of her."

"And what do you have to offer her, David, besides vampirism?" Max asked, blinking behind his glasses. "Can you offer her a home that she can relax in and charge all her toys? Can you give her the choicest meals? What do you have to offer her that I cannot surpass?"

David stabbed his finger into Max's chest as the others growled. "Stay the fuck away from her, Max."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Samantha woke up, walked downstairs, and found out what ugly meant the next day when her eyes met her mother's. She sank down in her seat and listened to her mother's words though they sounded like they came from a distance. _How can I be happy now? Oh God…how can this be happening? Why?_

**OOOOOOOOOOOO**

**A/N: Oh damn! Another weird ending there. What is it with me and these weird endings lately for this story? At least we got a taste of David in this ending kinda. I'm slightly happy with this chapter update. I haven't been writing much lately and this was a big thing for me, even if it wasn't as long as previous chapters. I'm trying to get back to the way things were, but it's taking its time. Leave a comment if you want. All the thanks to you. Enjoy your evening. -Scarlet**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So, I've just been dawdling on everything. I can't get my motivation to write back. I want to write but I can't focus enough to write anything. This was a struggle, but I'm back with a short and choppy update. I feel like I'm letting you down though. We'll see. Enjoy if you can.**

**OOOOOOOOOOO**

David didn't see Samantha come to the boardwalk for about a week and she didn't come to the door when he or the Boys knocked and the windows were locked tight. Finally, he wouldn't take no for an answer. He pounded on that door and called her name loudly, letting Paul and Marko rattle the windows. The leader of the Lost Boys wanted to see his Lost Girl and make sure her family hadn't destroyed what progress she had been making.

"David," one of her little sisters said, appearing at the door.

"Brat," David said in kind, looking down at her in disgust.

"You shouldn't be here," the girl said, leaning against the doorjamb. She glanced at the others. "None of you should."

"What do you mean, Bratty Brat?" Paul asked, bouncing on his toes. "He's dating her. And we're their entourage." He howled.

The sister rolled her eyes. "She's not dating him anymore."

"What the fuck do you mean?" David demanded, earning approving growls from his brothers. "Of course, I'm dating Samantha."

Samantha's sister shook her head. "Mom and Dad say you aren't. You're not. And you're not welcome here. So, run off boys. Go jump in a lake."

"Fuck off," Marko ordered, sliding into the house. "Sammy!"

"Mom, Marko got in the house!" the sister hollered.

"Mom, we all got in the house," Dwayne corrected, pushing his way inside. "And we're not leaving without Sammy!"

David led the way up the stairs and towards the door. He paused at the door and pressed his hand against it, expecting to feel the burn of a cross on the other side. But he felt nothing, but sadness on the other side. The sudden need to get into that hidden space and see what state his girlfriend was in hit him hard and he pushed that wooden barrier open.

"Samantha!"

"Sammy!"

Green eyes rimmed in black eyeliner met ice blue eyes and were wide with pain and sadness.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Samantha was perched on her bed, dressed in her pajamas still because she hadn't gone into work that day. She hadn't been feeling well. The voices had been acting up and she had nearly passed out from a migraine. She had played around with eyeliner though, drawing the usual lines and then adding a moon and some stars to the corner of her left eye. She had been miserable for the week without going out besides the work that her dad drove her to at the giant retail store a town over, but rules were rules. And one of the rules? No more David.

Yet there he was. Standing in her room with his Boys behind him, looking like a dangerous sex god in the middle of the room that they had redone for her. She whimpered and placed a hand on the choker around her neck, trying to find her voice. Trying to say anything to make him understand that she wanted him there and that he couldn't be there because of her parents. Oh good Lord, her parents. But all she got out was one word…

"David…"

Like that was a cue, David surged forward and moved over to her. Dwayne closed the door and locked it before leaning against it. Samantha was wrapped in powerful arms and crushed against David, him threading his fingers through her darkened hair. She felt a few tears slide down her cheeks and breathed in his familiar scent, trying to remember everything.

"Davie, she's shaking," Marko pointed out.

"Her eyes are glassy," Paul commented, also sounding sad.

"I see it," David said, pulling back slightly. He cupped Samantha's chin. "How bad is it?"

Samantha's eyes flit in another direction and then another. How could there be so many? David put his hands around her face and redirected her gaze to meet his.

"They're not there," David told her gently. "Those fuckers can't touch you. Focus Samantha." He smoothed his fingertips against her temples. "Have you taken any of your meds yet?"

Samantha made a face. "They're running low…and Dad won't take me until I agree to stop seeing you."

"That's neglect," Dwayne told her from the door. "He can't deny you your medication. The human laws say he can't."

Marko reached into his jacket and pulled out a bottle, dumping a pill into his hand. "Here's one of your emergency meds, Sammy."

Samantha took it from him and took the panda water bottle from Paul when he offered. She swallowed the pill and curled back up on her pillows, looking at her favorite Boys with the water bottle dangling between her knees. David's ice blue eyes held hers, burning with smothered anger, but not at her.

"What the fuck has been going on?" David demanded, curling his hand into a fist. He jerked his head in the direction of the door. "Your bitch of a sister said that your parents said that we're through."

The newly revealed Goth nodded. "They said that. They've – they've been horrible since the last time you came over and did this." She touched her hair and gestured at her room. "When you insulted my sister, she ran off to them and exaggerated everything…so they banned you from the house. They said your horrible influences on me."

"Duh," Paul said, perching himself on the bed behind David.

"And they didn't want you filling my head with ideas of things that could never happen anymore." Samantha plucked at her pajama pants. "They want me to let my hair fade and dye it back to burgundy with the same cheap dye. And find some way to return the clothes, all those packages that are over there in the corner of the room." She frowned. "They've told me to stay in here and amuse myself while thinking about my actions over the past several months because how could I have let such a thing happen?" She sighed. "They only come for me when it's time to go somewhere that I'm allowed to go with them or for random meals or when they need some money or think of another thing to yell at me for. Dad only takes me to work and doctor's appointments."

"So…" Marko wet his lips. "So you haven't left your room in a week?"

Samantha lowered her gaze. "No…"

"Sammy!" Marko whined, pouncing on her and holding her close.

Samantha let him hug her and stroke her hair, feeling so small in his arms though she was closest to his height. Another few tears fell from her eyes.

"Have they fed you?" David demanded, his voice low.

Samantha bit her bottom lip and refused to meet his gaze.

"Answer me, Samantha."

Samantha shook her head. "Sometimes…sometimes they forget to invite me to meals…"

The Boys hissed while David growled.

"Why don't you go get your own food, Sammy?" Dwayne asked, watching from the door.

"Because I'm not allowed to leave my room…" Samantha whispered, looking down at the moon patterns on her pajama pants. "And I eat at work…I fill my water bottle when I go to the bathroom and take a shower…they let me do that…they just forget to invite me to meals sometimes."

"Fuck it, Samantha!" David growled, gripping her by the shoulders and shaking her. "You deserve to fucking eat and they're starving you! Can't you see that they don't give a damn about you?"

Samantha stared at him. "I know they don't care, but they're…they're my family."

"No, they fucking aren't. They're people that gave life to you and then are trying to take it away. They give you the bare minimum to survive and bleed you until you're dry and so completely dependent on them that you'll do anything that they say. That's not a fucking family. That's a fucking abuser."

"We're your family, Sammy," Paul told her, poking his head around David's broad shoulder. "And we promised to protect you."

"From everything," Marko agreed.

Samantha put a hand to her throat again. "You – you want to…? David, no!"

"Why the hell not?" David demanded, blue eyes hard like ice chips. "They deserve it. They broke one of the cardinal rules for us. Mess with our Samantha, you end up not breathing. It's as simple as that. And Samantha, they've fucked you over all your life. All of them have, with the exception of one sister, who they chased out. It's about damn time they paid for it."

The girl scrambled back away from him and fell off the bed. Marko helped her to her feet, but she could see that they were all seriously thinking about killing her family. Leaving her alone. Samantha shook her head and raked her hands through her hair, turning her back on David and the Boys. She went over to her closet and disappeared inside of it. She had to think. She had to breathe. She had to…change?

_David, get out of my head, _Samantha thought, raking her hands over her clothes. _I told you to stay the fuck out of there._

The intrusive thoughts faded and the door behind her closed as the light flickered on. Samantha pried open her drawers and pulled out one of her new bras. She ripped off the shirt she was wearing and started to put the bra on when cool hands cupped her breasts, preventing her. The girl hissed at the contact and arched her back.

"Samantha, you know I'm right," David told her, holding her close and preventing her from changing farther. "Those people that control your life…those people that have hurt you constantly…who ignore you unless they need something, they have no right to walk free."

Samantha stared at the wood of her dresser. "David, they're my fucking blood. And my sisters deserve a chance at life…Who am I to take that away from them?"

"A woman scorned…"

The Goth shook her head. "I can't."

"We'll make it quick," David told her softly. "Not that they deserve it."

"I can't do it," Samantha repeated, smacking her hand against the dresser.

"We'll do it while you're away from them. You won't have to be around, Samantha…"

"I can't!" Samantha exclaimed, spinning around and looking at him with wide eyes. She grabbed his face between her hands and pulled it down to her level so that his forehead rested against hers. "David, they're monsters just like Max and probably worse in some ways, but I can't have their deaths on my conscience. I can't go through life knowing that you Boys killed my family. They'll haunt me. That knowledge will haunt me. And every time I look at you, I'll remember what you did…" She stared into his eyes, his beautiful, deadly eyes. "David, promise me you won't kill my family. Promise me!"

David breathed in slowly through his nose and let it out slowly. "I promise. But you've got to make an agreement with me."

Samantha grabbed her bra and put it in place. "Shoot."

"Bang!" Paul howled from out in her room, followed by raucous laughter.

"You're not staying here," David told her as she wiggled into a pair of black pants with silver chains. "You're not living with these people anymore. I won't stand for it."

"Well I can't exactly up and move in with you Boys," Samantha pointed out, pulling on a black low shouldered top with cinched elbowed sleeves. "The cave isn't made for humans."

"No, but a house would be," David stated.

Samantha blinked as she pulled on her leather jacket. "You want me to get my own house? With my lousy paycheck?"

David smirked and pulled her hair out of the collar of the jacket, fanning it around the shoulders. "It's not impossible." He tapped her cheek. "And it's going to happen because I'm not letting you get hurt by these fuckers anymore."

Samantha pulled on socks and jumped into her boots before following David out of the closet. "It's not like you can whip up a house by tomorrow…and as soon as they get me alone again, they're going to be on my case about how I let you in and how they told me this or that and blah blah blah."

Marko and Paul made mouthing motions with their hands. Then Marko made a duck sound and jumped on her bed,

"Don't care, they won't touch you," Marko told her. "No one touches our Sammy."

"No one," Dwayne agreed.

"Oh, we're making a stop at your work tonight," David told her, grabbing her hand.

"Why?" Samantha asked, instantly suspicious.

Paul smiled. "Because more spoiling! And we're going to get some food for you – your own food! Food that those bastards won't get to touch!"

Samantha winced. "Can you keep your voice down? The walls are thin, remember?"  
"Nope!" Paul howled, pounding on the wall with his fist.

The Goth blanched and pulled David towards the door. "Let's just go. Now."

She pulled the leader of the Lost Boys down the stairs and paused in the hall when she saw her parents standing in the living room, watching them. No, her. The girl squeezed David's fingers and he casually glanced over at Samantha's parents.

"You got a fucking staring problem?" he growled, offering them a sneer.

"Later, Sammy's rentals," Marko said, saluting them with a middle finger to the temple.

"Ooh, I like that," Dwayne said, stretching his hands behind his head and knocking a frame off the wall. "Rentals."

Paul laughed and slammed the door behind them.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Samantha looked at the Boys as she walked the aisles of the store with David, pushing a cart. She'd tried to pick a small cart, but David had grabbed a big one and shoved it into her grasp. Paul and Marko were darting about, throwing things at each other and laughing. Dwayne was pointing out things to Samantha, trying to get her to open her mind up.

"Sammy needs more of these," Paul said, throwing a bunch of canvas boards in the cart.

"I found these!" Marko declared, holding up two packs of brushes that ended in mermaid scales and unicorn horns. "Sammy, do you like?"

Samantha was unable to keep her eyes from widening in awe. Marko smiled and tossed the paintbrushes into cart before darting off again.

"David, you're not going to be able to carry all this back in your motorcycles," Samantha told him, glancing up at him as they walked and the Boys continued bringing back stuff that caused similar reactions or she cautiously reached for something that drew her desires and David shoved it in the cart. "There's no way."

"You worry too much about the little details," David told her, throwing in another item. "That's for me to worry about."

Samantha bumped him with her elbow. "You don't worry enough."

"Nope. I've got no reason to worry." His brow furrowed. "Except for you."

The girl ducked her head and continued pushing the cart. Dwayne cleared his throat lowly and Samantha felt David's arms wrap around her and he was suddenly pushing the cart from behind her.

"I'll worry about you, gladly, little Lost Girl," David promised, his voice a gentle purr in her ear.

Samantha nodded and walked with him and Dwayne for a few more minutes. She looked up when she heard someone say her voice. Her stomach dropped when she saw one of the team leads that kinda worked on her shift, but also kinda worked on third shift too. He always used a German accent when speaking to her, but since there were others around her, he was speaking normal.

"Sam, what are you doing here so late?" he asked, letting go of his trash bin.

"He one of the bosses?" David asked before Samantha could reply to the team lead.

"He's like third or fourth in command, I think," Samantha said, tightening her grip on the cart. "He's over my team lead."

"Perfect."

"David!" Samantha said as David pulled away from her and started walking towards the man.

"I'd like to have a word with you on behalf of Samantha," David said, staring the man directly in the eyes.

Before Samantha could protest further, Dwayne replaced David's position and guided her away as David and the team lead disappeared behind the gray doors that led to the backrooms of the building.

_Why does this always happen to me? _Samantha wondered, shrinking against Dwayne.

"It's going to be all right, Sammy," Dwayne promised, resting his chin on top of her head. "Now, how about we swing by the electronics department?"

Samantha nodded and let him guide her that way.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Samantha walked into the house with David and the Boys carrying her goodies and her parents rolled their eyes. She paused in the kitchen.

"What now?" she asked as the Boys began to unload the cold things that needed to be kept downstairs. "What have I done?"

"Where do we begin?" her dad demanded, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "You've disobeyed us. You went out of the house, out of your room. And spent money on these ridiculous things."

"And you've brought these hooligans into this house again!" her mother interjected.

"Boo!" Marko said, making a thumbs down sign.

"Not hooligans," Paul snickered.

"For shame, Paul."

"We need to shape up."

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."

Her mother sniffed and looked away.

"And your work just called. Your hours have been cut in half," her father said, sounding disappointed in her. "How are you supposed to make a living with just 20 hours?"

Samantha shrugged. "I'll manage."

"You weren't thinking, were you?" He pointed at a piece of paper on the fridge. "You're going to have to find another job. I've made a list of reliable websites and places."

David growled. "Your list can go fuck itself. And for the record, you can fuck yourself too." He gestured for the Boys to head upstairs. "We're not about to let you treat Samantha like shit because it gives you the fucking happies. So, we give her a few things? You've never spoiled the shit out of her and you've only given her crap when you've 'tried'. So, we decided to come back and show her a good time? You've fucking kept her locked in her room for an entire week without letting her out to do anything but piss! And who the hell do you think you are getting off telling her who she can and can't date? She's fucking 27! I'll be glad when she leaves your sorry asses because she deserves so much better than your nightmare."

Her dad narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. "Well, thanks to Samantha's actions, she can't afford to move out on her own until she gets another job. So your argument is invalid. David. And I think you should leave."

"I think not," David said. "To every bullshit word you just said." He jabbed a finger at Samantha's father. "Samantha doesn't need another job to escape this Hellhole and I'm not leaving until after I make sure that she's going to be okay. So you can kiss my very pleasant ass." The leader of the Lost Boys grabbed Samantha's hand and turned her. "Come on, love."

Samantha blinked and let him pull her upstairs. She skipped into her room and landed on her bed with David crashing next to her as the Boys ripped open the bags and started removing price tags so that there was no chance that her parents could force her to return what was bought. Samantha watched them until Dwayne tossed her a can of Vanilla Coke and she smiled.

"You guys are the best," she whispered, taking a sip of the soda.

"Of course, we are," David said, stretching out next to her. "We're biker sex gods." He tapped his stomach. "Hmm…"

Samantha shook her head. "That would be a no from me."

David rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "So much for being a valiant hero."

"Snack time!" Paul declared, throwing a bunch of treats in the air.

"No, picture time!" Marko said, stomping his foot.

"Snack time!"

"Picture time!"

"Snack time!"

"Picture time!"

Samantha sighed and watched her Boys, praying that things were going to be okay.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Samantha got up early the next day, only to find that her boss had changed her schedule and cut her hours immediately. She had the day off and so she went back to bed for a few more hours. When she got up, she put on some of her new black clothes and did her makeup and donned on a pair of kitty ears before going downstairs. She brewed herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, listening to the quiet of the house. She knew her dad was at work now, probably talking to his coworkers about her because she had slept in and he thought she was skipping work.

_Sorry to disappoint you, Dad, but my boss is letting me do this_.

The Goth looked at her phone as it rang and saw an unknown number. Normally, she would ignore unknown numbers, but something told her to answer this one. She pressed her ear to the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Samantha?" a very pleasant sounding woman's voice said from the phone.

"This is her," Samantha replied, feeling nervous. "Can I help you?"

"Samantha, my name is Diane Jacobs and I'm a realtor. I just wanted to let you know that we've closed on a house for you today…" the woman said and Samantha choked on her coffee.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

**A/N: I hope that you forgive me for not being as active of a writer as I once was. Ever since I was in the hospital and a little before then, I just can't focus enough to write and I miss that about me. I'm getting there, but in spurts. I hope you understand. I'll get back there. I'll get back to this when I can. Much love and thanks to all of you. - Scarlet**


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